Eye of the Beholder
by VinceT
Summary: Harry Potter, thought a squib and dead after being abandoned by the Potters at five, is back. No longer under anybody's thumb, and wielding the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, watch as he blows the wizarding world away. Full summary inside. WARNING: INCEST!
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **Abandoned by his parents in Knockturn when he was five and believed dead, Harry grew up into more than anybody could have possibly imagined. Now head of the Ancient and Noble House of Uchiha, Harry Itachi Uchiha is ready to send shockwaves out into the magical world – his first upset: Hogwarts. Follow Harry as he scares the bejesus out of control-mongers, amazes the magical world, and falls in love with the last person he thought he would.

**Categories:** Godlike powers, twincest, Sharingan!Harry, Wrong Twin-Who-Lived  
**Genres:** Adult, Adventure, AU, Crossover, Romance  
**Pairings:** Harry/OC  
**Warnings:** Adult Themes, Incest

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**PLEASE READ!** This story contains INCEST between twins! If you're not into that kind of thing then stop reading now – you have been warned.

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'Harry No-Name' looked out of his apartment's window with a small sigh as the dreary London weather wisped past and drizzle distorted his view of outside. As he leaned back into his recliner he placed his hand over his mouth in his usual thinking pose, averting his attention away from the Master's Level Defence Against the Dark Arts tome resting in his lap. The only sounds that came from around him were the slight patter of rain and the low hum of the refrigerator in his kitchen, but it didn't bother him. He'd become well acquainted with solitude in the first five years of his life, and independence for the six years after that.

"Nipsy!"

A second later a house elf popped into existence and Harry sent her a small smile, getting one in return. "How may I serve you Master Uchiha?"

He rolled his eyes and sent her a small mock scowl. "Well firstly you can call me Harry, and secondly, would you be so kind as to fetch my trunks from my room and bring them here?"

"Of course… Master Uchiha," she burst out before smirking with triumph as she popped away. Harry simply gave a small chuckle and shook his head before closing he book on his lap. As he stood he stretched, and gave a small grunt when several vertebrae popped back into place. He brushed the feathery locks of black hair out of his face and vaguely waved his hand. He felt his hair pull taught against his scalp as if formed itself into a ponytail with only a couple of strands framing his face, and yawned before looking to his pack of cigarettes with narrowed eyes. After a moment he picked them up and threw them into the bin across the room, and when Nipsy reappeared with his luggage informed her, "And please destroy any cigarettes that I have lying around – it was merely an exercise, and I find myself rather… disgusted by the things."

Nipsy looked positively ecstatic and nodded furiously, beaming widely up at him. "As you wish Ha – Master Uchiha."

He glowered at her, but his lips were twitching as she popped away after blowing him a raspberry. "She'll be the death of me." He kicked aside the plain red case and instead knelt down by the obsidian black trunk before murmuring in a low hiss whereupon it clicked open and revealed its contents to him. A small representation of an apartment, like an architectural model, met his eyes, and he hummed for a moment before tapping it three times whereupon it was emptied completely, walls and all. He gazed critically at the empty space before speedily creating a new layout; a luxurious bedroom and bathroom, a workout room; and mixed kitchen and living area quickly making an appearance. He murmured once again, his words incomprehensible, and all the walls changed to reflect a predefined colour scheme that matched his wants. He smiled before flicking to the next compartment, and scrolled rapidly through his library, potions store, wardrobe, training grounds, and vault to make sure everything was in order.

He found everything to his satisfaction and smiled to himself before closing the lid and slicing his finger slightly on a protruding sharp patch, once again hissing lowly after he had done so. The meter-by-half-meter trunk shrunk within seconds to half the size of a matchbox, and he wandlessly conjured a chain before clipping it securely around his neck. "I have a goodbye present for you Mas- Harry."

The young, emerald-eyed wizard turned around with a look of surprise on his face, but it softened into a warm smile when he saw Nipsy holding out a small satchel for him. He took it and peered inside, and he gave a small chuckle when he saw the shrunken lunch – obviously under a warming charm as the red glow and runes floating around it signalled. "Thank you Nipsy, though I'll see you at Hogwarts all the same. I'll make sure to drop by the kitchens to say hello once in a while, and once I'm settled in I'll show you my room and you can visit whenever you feel the need."

"Of course Master Uchiha." Her cheeky grin followed his laughter out of the apartment, and after a quick glamour cast wandlessly over himself he pulled his 'trunk' after him. He travelled down the elevator alone besides the bellboy, and bade the young man goodbye before striding out and into the luxurious lobby. He was greeted by name and with smiles by most of the staff, and he nodded back with warm greetings as well before walking out into the chilly London air. As he neared his destination his age slowly decreased until he was once more an eleven year old, and the moment he walked into King's Cross station he felt the glamour wink fully out of existence. He smirked to himself.

As if he'd made the trip hundreds of times before he walked through the barrier to Platform 9¾ like it was second nature, and emerged onto the other side fully aware of what he would find. People bustled around as parents tried to get their last goodbyes into their children despite the obvious embarrassment factor, and Harry found his smirk twisting into a small scowl as he navigated the crowds. People made way for him when he got close enough, and moved quickly out of his way with wide eyes when they saw the tell-tale signs. Black hair, a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and piercing emerald eyes that seemed to glow from within. Of course the magical power he was exuding also added to the 'get out of my way' factor.

Just as he was about to move onto the train he heard a series of voices behind him and his scowl deepened until he forced himself to restrain his magic. His eyes flashed red for a moment before being repressed, and he took in a deep breath when the words, "May, stop mucking around and come and say goodbye before the train leaves!" reached his ears. As he strode into the train he caught sight of three people he had hoped never to see again for as long as he lived, even though he knew it would have been almost impossible to achieve such a feat. James Potter looked just as he had six years ago; hair mussed and untameable, brown eyes glinting with mischief behind his glasses, and his stance confident. Lilly looked just the same as she had six years ago as well; as beautiful as ever with her crimson hair cascading over her shoulders and emerald eyes gleaming with love.

As she looked down at her daughter May Potter.

May _had_ changed. She had grown a lot since Harry had last lain eyes on her, and her hair, an almost black crimson, now came down to just above her shoulder blades – though it was pulled back into a ponytail. Her nose clearly came from her mother, just as Harry's had, and her high cheekbones reflected her father's – saves more delicate. Her eyes, almost identical to Harry's own, glinted with excitement, though lying beneath that – deep down – he could see repressed anger and sadness. That sight alone eased his glare and scowl, and he found himself intrigued. Before the three could turn and catch him looking he moved into the bowels of the carriages, and quickly located a free compartment. He pulled a black wand from within the folds of his robes and waved it in several complex patterns before murmuring, "Harry Uchiha resides in Compartment 92, Hogwarts Express."

He felt the magic take hold within him and let out a small smile before sitting down and then yelping when he felt something rather spiky stab him in the posterior. He stared down at the small hedgehog with something akin to disbelief, and then picked it up before hiffing it onto the opposite seat in the compartment. "For Merlin's sake Cicero, why the hell did you do that?"

The hedgehog rippled, and after a moment Harry found himself staring into the eyes of a young basilisk; it's lethal yellow eyes boring into his emerald. §_You ignored me this morning,_ § the snake shot back, its stare not affecting Harry in the least, §_so that was my revenge. You didn't even check to see if you had me!_ §

§_Cicero,_ § Harry murmured as he shook his head and pulled a notebook from his inside pocket, §_I knew you were with me – I saw you aura in my upper right hand pocket… so I suspect you were lounging around in your lizard form._ §

If a basilisk could blush, Harry was sure his Shifter was managing it right at that moment. The pair sat in silence for the five hour trip; Harry busily scratching away in his notebook with a muggle pen and Cicero curled up enjoying the wandless warming charm Harry had placed on the cushions beneath him. Harry got changed when he heard the five-minute whistle blow, and stepped out of his compartment as he dropped the Fidelius the moment it stopped; Cicero back in his breast pocket as a lizard. He navigated the throngs of people around him with agile ease, and found himself sitting in a boat with two people he knew to be Susan Bones and Blaize Zabini. They knew him as well, if the shocked looks on their faces were anything to go by, and he sent them both a small glower. "You would do well to stop gawping, and to keep your mouths _shut_ about my presence until the Sorting is over."

He got two hurried nods in return, and sent them both sub-zero looks that made them look away and become very interested in the water flowing past them as the boats sliced their way through the lake. When Hogwarts came into view Harry heard gasps of awe and wonder from around him, and looked around with a look of disbelief. It wasn't that magnificent; nowhere near as beautiful as the Hidden City in Cairo at night, or as wondrous as the Chika Temple in Japan where he had studied for a time. He shrugged after a moment and gave a small nod of appreciation, he supposed that it was a little cool – but that was as highly as he was willing to rate it.

They finally ducked under an alcove and came into an enclosed area where the boats docked, and Harry made sure to hide himself skilfully behind his sister when she walked past – he didn't want her to see him just yet. He pulled out a couple more strands of hair from his ponytail so that his scar was obscured enough that a fleeting glance wouldn't identify him, and moved with the rest of his year mates, though most certainly not equals, up into Hogwarts. He ignored McGonagall's speech about the Sorting, and about tidying themselves up. He was already impeccably dressed, and didn't even flinch when the ghosts made an appearance.

He'd seen far, far more shocking things in his life.

Like his own parents abandoning him at five years old in the middle of Knockturn.

Power threatened to radiate from him, but he pushed it ruthlessly down – he was going to keep his abilities under wraps for as long as humanly possible, and only the basic safety skills would he reveal. And enough to be the very top of his year, of course. They were finally led into the Great Hall, and Harry slunk into the very centre of the first-year group to evade the stares of all the students around him. It seemed that several others had the same idea, but he ruthlessly established his dominance over the craved domain by glowering coldly at anybody that came close to pushing him out. Eventually all the excitement calmed down, and McGonagall clearly begun reading out the names of all the new students.

Harry glazed over, but paid close attention when, "Potter, May!" erupted from the woman's mouth. Whispers immediately broke out as the red-haired girl walked forwards looking nervous, and Harry's eyes were fixated with immense interest at the expressions playing across her face. He had been expecting arrogance and an air of superiority, but once again could only see nervousness… underlain by the same emotions that he had seen at the train station. The Sorting had seemed to take a very long time with her, and not once did Harry's eyes waver from his once-sister. What happened next shocked almost everybody.

"Hufflepuff!"

Harry saw Dumbledore spit out some of his pumpkin juice in shock, and watched as all of the Gryffindors' jaws slackened – a few outright gaping. Then the cheers started from the House of the Badger, and Harry watched as May quickly scurried to the table where she sat down with red cheeks. For a moment the thought that she was cute popped into his head, but he ruthlessly squashed it with a frown. When his name begun coming close he gave a sigh and placed the strand of hair back into its rightful position; revealing his scar. "Uchiha, Harry?" The usually-composed Scotswoman's tone took an upward infliction of confusion at the name, and many people were looking around to get a glance at the person who had caused the transfiguration professor to become so flummoxed, and indeed, when they looked, their Headmaster to become so stiff and alert.

And when Harry walked out of the crowd of first years and made himself known, only dead silence met his footsteps. If people had been surprised at May being put in Hufflepuff, seeing him there had their jaws hitting the floor. Harry wasn't paying attention to any other than a few key people however, the first being Dumbledore. He saw confusion, panic, and hurried thinking blasting through the pale blue eyes, and calmly rebuffed a mental probe that came pounding at him. Shock quickly entered the maelstrom of emotions, and Harry stifled a smirk before moving on to look at the other staff members. The man he knew to be Severus Snape was glowering at him, and he knew that he would have to keep the grease-ball on a tight leash. He felt another probe attack him when he met the eyes of a turbaned professor, and narrowed his eyes a fraction when he felt the darkness residing within the package of magic.

And then he turned to his sister – though subtly. What he found made him stumble, _actually_ stumble! He hadn't misplaced a movement in years, and yet what he saw shocked him sufficiently enough to make him falter. She had her hands over her mouth, and her green eyes, almost a perfect match to his, were wide with shock. And complete and utter joy. He snapped his slowly slackening jaw closed, and forced himself to regain his composure. He strode confidently to the sorting chair before placing the hat on his own head; McGonagall too shocked to offer any resistance, even token, and he breathed out a sigh of relief when he blackness covered his vision and allowed him to hurriedly analyse the thoughts running rampant in his mind.

He didn't have much time to wonder however, because mere seconds after putting the hat over his head he felt something walk right through his occlumency barriers and then slam unexpectedly into his secondary defence comprised of pure magic. _'My my Lord Uchiha, how very, very interesting.'_

"I'd get out of my head right now if you knew what was good for you," he murmured lowly so that only the hat could hear, and a chuckle echoed in his mind. _'Ah, but then how will I know where to put you?_'

'_By listening to what I want,_' Harry reasoned in his head, and the hat gave yet another chuckle.

'_It does not quite work like that, my Lord. You see, I look at your life experiences and put you where they dictate you would thrive the most.'_

'_My memories are not for anybody but myself to see,_' Harry fired venomously back.

'_Your casting out, I assume? And the time following? Perhaps the isolation your parents treated you to when you were young?'_

'_My sister,'_ Harry automatically guessed with a small growl in his throat, '_she would not have been able to even sense your probe, let alone divert it. I assume you saw the way I was treated?_'

'_And the way she feels about you,_' replied the hat conversationally, and Harry frowned.

'_Can you elaborate any more on that, Hat?'_

'_Well most certainly not… unless you let me into that noggin of yours,_' it finished slyly, and Harry contemplated the offer for a moment before nodding.

'_So long as this information is kept completely secret – it is only for your consumption Hat. If I find it has been leaked… well, I will destroy you_.'

He thought he heard a scoff as the hat agreed and he released his barriers, but a moment later smirked when he heard and felt the hat shift nervously on his head. Apparently he'd come across his ability to use Amaterasu, and understood that he _did_ in fact have the ability to destroy him. After several minutes the Hat sighed in Harry's head, who was pointedly ignoring the murmurs of debate outside as people wondered what was taking so long. '_Lord Uchiha_,' he Hat started, '_I never knew the full extent of your life. Your sister only knows a small fraction of what you suffered, and nothing about what happened after you were cast out by James and Lilly… if you wanted my opinion right now, the best house to put you is in no house – as they would all restrict you in some way. The Founder's house is an option, but would draw far more attention than you want – and you'll be getting enough already. Slytherin would be best for your academic progress, what little you could achieve here with what you know anyway, but… dare I suggest it Lord Uchiha, Hufflepuff would be your best option overall._'

Harry was more than a little shocked at the suggestion, but narrowed his eyes after a moment. '_What does my sister think of me?_'

'_She thinks of you as her silent protector, Lord Uchiha. She remembers clearly the several times you threw yourself in the firing line to keep her from trouble… and she loves you dearly, and feels immense guilt for being the cause of you finally getting disowned._'

Harry's eyebrows shot up. '_It wasn't her fault,_' he argued, '_it would have happened sooner or later with her being the Girl-Who-Lived. I was simply a nuisance for Lilly and James,'_ he spat out the two names with immense disgust, '_and they would have cast me out anyway. Me taking the blame for her destroying the Potter Grimoire was simply the straw that broke the camel's back.'_

'_Be that as it may, Lord Uchiha, she still feels responsible, and hides a deep hatred for the two people you used to call parents. Interesting, is it not Harry?'_ It was indeed, but the Hat was not yet done. '_Moreover, my Lord, she used to call them her parents as well – and yes, I did use the past tense. You should understand, Lord Uchiha, that I retain a connection to those I sort for nearly an hour after being on their heads… and her dream is to get to know you and to live her life with you, though up until you made your appearance, only in a familial capacity._'

Harry couldn't stop from speaking aloud his shock, "You cannot possibly be suggesting-"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Harry felt the Hat get pulled off his head, and stared ahead for several seconds with wide eyes before standing slowly and suddenly being applauded by the house he had just been sorted into. He noticed with sharp clarity that his sister was by far the most expressive; her eyes alight with hope and happiness, and crimson staining her cheeks as she beamed towards him. He averted his eyes, suddenly very uncomfortable, and walked to his new house before sitting as far from May as he could; fingering the new badger on his robes as he sunk deep into thought.

Dinner passed uneventfully, saves for the legilimency probes pounding at his barriers from Dumbledore, Snape, and Quirrel combined. Harry didn't even break a sweat; simply eating as he thought as if nothing was wrong in the world.

In all actuality, nothing could be further from the truth.

He ignored his sister's blatant attempts to get his attention, as well as her hurt expressions when he didn't even glance once her way. Once dinner was over he slid around within the group of first years following their prefect to avoid May, who was searching fervently around for him within the gaggle of year mates, but eventually sighed to himself before subtly reaching underneath his shirt for several seconds and then removing a small, leather-bound notebook. He peered inside, and gave a nod of approval when he saw his elegant writing inside proclaiming: _A guide to absolute mind defence – from nothing to everything, written by Harry Itachi Uchiha._ It had taken him several months to write, but it seemed that it had been a good idea after all. He held it low so that it wouldn't attract any attention, and ignored the looks and murmurs of gossip around him.

His break from the Potter Family had been incredibly public, and very, very well supported by the right people to swing it the right way. Of course now that framework was, to excuse his language, fucking smashed to figurative smithereens, because it was quite clear that he _wasn't_ a squib as his parents had claimed – but he understood though didn't like the attention he was getting. The only upside was the looks his ex-parents would be getting when it got out that he could perform magic with ease.

The group finally emerged into the common room, and it became all but impossible to hide himself without resorting to escape, which he could easily have done with complete stealth, but held himself back from actually executing. May found him immediately, and attempted to make her approach subtle and unhurried. The shallow breaths, moist eyes, and shaking legs, however, made her advance anything but.

"Harry," she finally whispered when she reached him, and he had to force himself to remain impassive as she stared up at him; her eyes filled with a whirlwind of emotion; her happiness and disbelief the most prominent two among the sadness, anger, and love. But slowly the last emotion took precedence over all the others, and Harry found himself suddenly engulfed by a sobbing red-head. The prefect, seeing the situation and Harry's wide eyes, quickly pulled all the other first years to a respectful distance where they wouldn't be able to overhear what was going on. Although thankful, Harry was far too occupied thinking about just what the hell he should do. He slowly, awkwardly, wrapped one arm around her back and patted softly; his movements almost mechanical. That only made May clutch tighter and cry harder, well aware of why he was so stilted in his movements.

He'd never really been hugged before.

Harry cleared his throat after a moment, and when that had no effect he pushed her back to get some space between them – his face showing confusion and slight panic, but the latter was squashed down into nothingness after several seconds. Contrarily May's eyes showed hurt, pain, but understanding – at least until Harry thrust the book out at her. She stared at it for several seconds before looking up at him, and he gave a sharp nod whereupon she took it from his fingers. They skin met for a split second, and Harry watched as a blush rocketed across his sister's face – though she skillfully tried to hide it by peering inside the book. When she saw the title and, above all else, the name of the author, the blush returned full force and she tried to hug him again.

He quickly held her back however, and before the hurt could reappear he spoke quietly but with confusion lacing his tone. "I need to think… and I will not interact with you until you can perform every exercise in that book."

He nodded stiffly once more, and turned away to head up to the dorms where the prefect had continued his tour to give them some privacy. He didn't miss the look of hope on May's face as she clutched the book protectively to her chest however, and the action of possessiveness and happiness made his lips twitch in a rare show of positive emotion.

"How very, very odd," he murmured to himself as he entered his dorm, "this is bound to be an interesting change of pace."


	2. Chapter 2

He had known it was coming – it was inevitable really. He was Harry ex-James ex-Potter, allegedly a squib, and was now – as Harry was sure Dumbledore would have discovered overnight – a member of a house that had founded the Ministry of Magic; one of the Founding Four. The power he held politically was incredible, and the financial resources unfathomable… and he had no doubt that Albus Too-Many-Names Dumbledore was going to be getting up to his old tricks in trying to either get that power to his side, or to marginalize it permanently. Of course, Harry thought as he walked towards the meeting he'd been called to in the Headmaster's office, the old man didn't know that Harry was the Lord of the Uchiha house. If he had then far more nasty steps would have been taken, but then again Harry wasn't about to screw around and pussyfoot around the issue very much unlike the old goat.

He knew his rights, his limits, and his chances. He also knew a lot about how Dumbledore played, and so he was not surprised in the least when he walked into the 'private meeting' and found Lily and James sitting down on an angle to the Headmaster. May, interestingly, was absent, and Harry had to stifle a smirk – apparently the Hat hadn't been lying; May truly didn't like her parents, and it seemed that they knew it too.

"Harry m'boy!" greeted the Headmaster in a grandfatherly tone, "how are yo-"

Harry sat bodily down and arranged himself formally as he interrupted. "That is Lord Uchiha to you, Albus."

The moment he revealed his title the headship ring appeared on his finger, and the old man paled drastically. James Potter however, had no qualms about giving Harry a piece of his mind. "You will not speak to the Headmaster like that Harry; he deserves respect that you should gladly give!"

Harry's head slowly crawled to meet his 'father's', and a small smirk twitched at his lips. "Ah, James, you were always the master of perpetual foot-in-mouth disease, weren't you?" The man's cheeks reddened, but Lilly jabbed him in the ribs before he could blow. "What?" he snapped at her, but he quieted when he saw her scared expression, and turned to Dumbledore. When he saw a matching look on his mentor's face he stared back at Harry, and found his disowned son staring back at him in amusement. "Ah, it seems as though you can finally see that something is amiss, James. Perhaps your oh-so-wonderful wife could explain to you why I am so calm and composed, and addressing you all so informally." The way he referred to his mother was dripping with sarcasm, and Lily winced before leaning over to her husband and whispering in hushed tones.

The room was more than quiet enough, however, to render private conversations fully audible by everybody present. "He's _Lord Uchiha_, James! He's got power in the Ministry akin to if Merlin walked in there himself! The Uchiha family is one of the Founding Four, and now the only one that is active if Harry truly is Lord Uchiha… and that ring doesn't lie James. He has every right to call Albus by his first name, and yours, and mine, and everybody in Britain."

James' eyes were widening more every second as he comprehended the depth of the situation. After several moments it slumped, and Harry stopped him before it could even start. "Spare me the act of 'I'm so sorry, come back into the Potter Family', because I know why it would be offered." He turned to Dumbledore looking as calm as could be, and sent the man a genial, but dangerous smile. "You wished to talk to me, Albus?"

"I must ask where you are living at the moment Ha- _my Lord_." Harry could hear the distain for having to address somebody by their title, and didn't bother hiding his smirk.

"Ah, the rudimentary interrogation session, eh Albus?" He watched out the corner of his eye as Lily stopped James from speaking once more by jabbing him in the gut, and his smirk widened. "As I am sure you well know, having looked up all the rights of the Founding Four last night, that I am not required to answer any of your 'must asks', Albus. I will not tell you anything about me; not how I became Lord Uchiha, nor the extent of my influence, or anything else personal or in any way connected to me."

"I must insis-"

"And likewise I must insist that you _de_sist your illegal questioning. I rule this meeting over, and thus it is adjourned – so mote it be." He stood from his chair easily, and as he walked out of the room he called over his shoulder, "Oh, and do watch your stray legilimency probes – one might just be traced."

Dumbledore paled even further at the implications of that knowledge. When performing a legilimency attack the probe itself was like a puppet; controlled by strings leading back to the attacker's magical core. It was rumoured that Merlin could 'trace' attackers; send his own magic across the strings attached to the probe, and then penetrate directly into the user's core through the weakness left by the mind magic. The act of foreign magic tainting the core was allegedly several times more painful than the Cruciatus curse, and Harry Uchiha was claiming that he knew how to perform the attack – one that had been lost to the ages.

Leaving Dumbledore and his ex-parents pale and in a state of shock Harry casually walked down the halls of Hogwarts and towards his first class of Charms. Flitwick was the one to tell him that the Headmaster wanted a meeting, and so he knew that he wouldn't get in trouble for being late, but he wasn't looking forward to drawing the attention of the class at his entrance. If he drew attention for his feats of magic he could most certainly handle that, but after claiming his inheritance and completing his training, not entering a room stealthily was a pet peeve of his. He blamed it on the memories of Itachi Uchiha he now had in his head. All one thousand five hundred and sixty three years' worth.

He cringed slightly as the door swung open to admit him, and valiantly tried to ignore the light in his sister's – twin sister to be precise – eyes when she saw him. Her very slight blush was also hard to ignore. He saw the book that he had given her resting open on her lap and couldn't help but stifle a small, confusedly happy smile. She was so very different from what he had thought she would be, and his fury at the sight of her at the station had been whisked away completely by this point. She had never neglected him like her parents had; in fact she had always tried to be around him – an act that was near impossible due to Lily and James' interference. He had blamed May for quite some time, seeing her as the reason he was cast out and disowned by the Potter family, but had eventually gotten over the anger and simply relegated her to the people he disliked the most.

But he saw now that he had been wrong to do so.

She wore a mask, and very well he had to admit, but under that veneer lay her true emotions and thoughts. He would never use legilimency on her, but it wasn't hard for him to admit that the Sorting Hat was very right in how his twin saw him. As he sat down he wondered for a moment if it was a case of hero-worship, but he shook his head almost immediately; her emotions were too pure for that. Zacharias Smith, who was sitting next to him, helpfully filled Harry in on what they were doing, and the young Uchiha nodded with a small smile in thanks.

When he withdrew his wand he found attention rapidly focusing on him once more – including Flitwick's. His eyes were like a hawk's, Harry thought as he moved his wand in a quick, but perfect flick and muttered the incantation, and very amusing when he was shocked, he added with a smirk when he gaped at the feather that jumped off the desk and immediately begun zipping around the room like a fighter plane. He jokingly blasted it full noise towards the small man, and watched his eyes widen further, at least until Harry made it pull a vertical snap and zip millimetres away from his nose, upwards towards the ceiling where it glided peacefully around in lazy circles.

"Twenty points to Hufflepuff for an extraordinary display of control and perfection!" the diminutive professor squeaked excitedly, and Harry was interested to see a brunette dressed in Gryffindor robes across the room huff with annoyance and send him a small glare as her feather hovered unsteadily above her desk. He snatched a slight glance at May, and found her smiling warmly towards him – a smile filled with pride and a smugness that was clearly aimed at him and her parents respectively. When he saw her own feather steadily levitated on top of her desk he sent her a small nod and twitch of his lips, and then had his feather come down from the ceiling and tweak her nose – eliciting a small 'eep!' and fully fledged blush when he dropped the spell and his feather floated down to land on top of her text book.

Nobody saw the small exchange, and Harry turned back to the board before pulling out a red-covered book as he stowed his wand back in its wrist holster. Zacharias glanced over at what he was reading, but found himself utterly bamboozled when all he saw was a series of illegible squiggles. "What language is that?" he asked after a moment, and Harry looked up with a little bit of ice in his eyes at having his privacy disturbed.

"It's a secret language passed down by my family."

"So do all the Potters know it?"

His question seemed to echo all throughout the room, and everybody stopped what they were doing to pay attention to what was being said. Zacharias recoiled at the cold glare he was on the receiving end of, and Harry's icy voice made everybody around him shiver. "I am _not_ a Potter, and nor would I ever wish to be a part of a family that abandons a five year old child in _Knockturn_." He saw his sister pale in horror, and then pure fury flare in her eyes. Harry found it interesting that she didn't know what truly happened, but was not yet done with the question that had been posed to him. "I am an Uchiha, and I will proudly carry that name until the day I die." He sent Flitwick a small smirk, "And the Potters will have missed out on having one of the most powerful wizards in history as a part of their family."

The message was clear; Harry knew that Flitwick reported everything to the Headmaster, and wasn't afraid in the least about him sharing his thoughts on his ex-family. "Of course," he added after a moment, bringing all attention back to him, "a child should not be punished for the sins of the father. Everybody here should take heed of that adage."

That raised several eyebrows, and Harry could almost feel the thankful smile of his twin burning into the back of his head. The rest of the class passed quietly; as if everybody was afraid to make a noise that would bring attention to them, and Harry was content with that; instead reading the Parselmagic book he had been reading until his house mate shot his mouth off without thinking of the consequences. When the chime rang out in the school everybody packed up – still very quietly – and filed out of the room. Harry was the last one to leave, but was held back by the small man who had been instructing the class. "Mister Uchiha, I must congratulate you again on your performance in class today – I've never seen anybody pick it up so quickly, nor so skillfully." He nodded his thanks, and the Charms Master cocked his head to the side. "I am, however, curious as to just what your wand is made of. I've never seen a wand so black, nor in such a shape."

He was, of course, referring to the fact that it petered off into an almost needle-like tip. He wasn't about to tell him that the tip was simply there so that he could skewer people in close-quarter attacks, but felt no harm in telling him the composition of the 'wood'. "Twelve and three sixtieth inches," he explained, getting a raised eyebrow at the precise measurement, "made of my femur bone after I had been bitten by a Nudu."

The small man paled until he looked as if he would turn transparent, and Harry sent him a jaunty wave before walking out of the room not once looking back. Even he had to admit that he was lucky to be alive after the incident that had required his femur to be removed. He had been training in Japan, deep in the Forests, when he had come across the Nudu in question. Running wasn't an option by the time he realized just what he'd gotten himself into, and so the only way to get out alive was to fight. It's lethal breath had caught him off guard two minutes in, and had weakened him enough that the huge cat had time to dart in and bite deeply into his leg. The pain had been indescribable, but he'd jabbed his wand at the time into the beast's mouth and cast a _deffodio maximus_ which had taken its head clean off. But the damage had been done.

A Nudu's breath was lethal, but its venom was an instant death sentence. He could feel his body deteriorating as soon as he'd gathered himself enough to start thinking remotely clearly once more, and had cursed his bad luck at having come across such a dangerous beast at only eight years old. Harry had learned, however, that normal never really applied to him – which was why when a Royal Phoenix swooped in and cried into the wound, and then into his mouth, all he could do was sit there wondering just why in the hell his life couldn't be normal. The local Healer had found him after two days when he was searching for herbs, and had immediately extracted the damaged bone before making to vanish it. Harry had stopped him however; well aware of just how powerful an object his bone now was – imbued with Nudu venom and Royal Phoenix tears.

It had been a year later when he had decided to make a wand from what had once been a part of him, and for the second time in his life he was graced with the presence of the same Royal Phoenix who had saved his life – though this time to donate a tail feather before disappearing once more. The next year had seemed almost scripted. In his training he came across the rarest of beasts; a Unicorn who gave two drops of its blood freely to him; an Akki that gave him a fang after being defeated; a Ningyo gifting him one of its pearl tears after he resisted its allure; and finally the hair of the Grand Elf when Harry had been pulled into their realm during his sleep.

When he had crafted the wand, after many months of training under a master of the art and sleepless nights of research, the core of his wand was the most interesting thing to create. The phoenix feather was hollowed down the stem, and inside he had sealed the hair of the Grand Elf that had been soaking in the Unicorn blood for days; capping the hollow with the pearl of the Ningyo. The Akki's fang had been ground into a fine powder, and through using the left-over Unicorn blood had been placed in a fine layer over top of the feather. Sealing the core cavity of the wand had taken days of careful preparation, and he had finally managed to make the bone of his wand live once more – just long enough for it to grow over the ends. A week later and he had finished crafting the wand into its perfectly sharpened point; the time needed due to the strength of the magically imbued bone.

And he'd had twenty sorcerers helping him with it.

The first time he had held the wand in his hand, at eight years old, he had felt a connection he'd never before experienced. It was like it thrummed with happiness to be in his grasp; it felt like it was alive. His old wand hadn't been able to even hold a candle to it; however he still kept it in his trunk as a keepsake.

He was thankful that his sister hadn't tried to talk to him again and was actively holding herself in check, because had she made a move to interact with him he would have been hard pressed to resist – curiosity burned within him. It didn't help that she was the prettiest girl he'd ever laid eyes on. She took a seat at the back of the potions room while Harry took one in the center, and he found himself joined by Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones – Zacharias apparently being too uneasy around him after his rather spur-of-the-moment question in Charms.

Harry watched with rolling eyes as Snape strode into the room; his robes billowing intimidatingly out behind him. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

His eyes immediately locked onto Harry's at this, and the young man felt the probe slamming against his Occlumency defences. He was disappointed at the lack of power, but put it down to underestimation before beginning to trace the probe back. He watched Snape's eyes turn confused for a moment, and smirked when he saw terror burn deep in his nearly-black eyes as he realized just what Harry was doing. The probe tried to retreat, but Harry lazily continued swathing its strings with his own magic as he made his way leisurely towards Snape's core. The man begun sweating, and when Harry was right at the orb of his magic he begun twitching with pain as Harry playfully grazed its edges; sending jolts of agony through the man's mind and body. Finally he released the professor, who was now deathly pale and shiny from sweat, and sent him a small smirk hidden by a concerned smile. "Are you feeling alright, Professor?"

"Fine, Mister Uchiha," came the snappish reply, tempered by a slight tremor, "today we will be learning how to brew…"

And so the lesson went – without a further hitch. Harry gave a small chuckle when the man all but ran from the class as soon as the chime went, and unhurriedly stoppered the vials he had lined up along his desk when he filled them. The colour of his potion was pure amethyst, clearer than even the picture shown in the text book, and he turned around when a tap came on his shoulder. May Potter looked at him with redness tinting her cheeks, but bravely continued when she had her twin's attention. "Um, I noticed that your potion is far clearer than mine is, and I was wondering if you knew why?"

He breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized that she was only questioning him about classwork, and gave a nod of ascent as he followed her back to her cauldron that was still keeping the potion at a stable temperature. He leaned over the bubbling mixture and gave a small sniff before furrowing his brow and looking in her text book – surprised when he saw the mass of notes scribbled over it. It took less than a second to identify the writing, and he let loose a small scowl. "Ah, Lily just couldn't help herself now, could she?" He sensed May stiffen beside him, but skimmed the instructions before raising an eyebrow, and then turning to look at the matching emerald eyes of his sister. "You didn't follow her instructions."

He saw a flicker of anger flash through her eyes, as well as a snarl grace her lips, but she marshalled herself easily back into a more tamed annoyance. "Why should I? It's cheating, what she did. If I cut down my brewing time by half then I want it to be my achievements and research that led to the discovery."

Harry's respect for his sister shot up several notches, and he gave an approving nod – bringing about yet another flush on her cheeks. "Your mistake," he pointed out a passage in the text book, "was not really _your_ mistake – it was Lily's. Her notes distorted the number of frog spawn you were meant to add – you put in eight rather than three hence the lack of clarity." He watched her eyes widen, and then narrow in anger, and smiled to himself. "I respect your want to achieve results yourself, but perhaps I can point you in the right direction – if you don't mind."

"I can fix it?" She sounded almost disbelieving, and Harry gave a small laugh and a nod. "But I was told that once a potion was brewed it was impossible to reverse the steps!"

"It is," he agreed, but pointed to the flame still burning underneath the cauldron, "if the potion is not held at its stability temperature. Now, if you add eight frog spawn instead of three, what happens to the acidity of the potion?"

"It increases," she answered, and Harry nodded.

"Right, so when the potion increases in acidity, what happens to the other ingredients?"

She thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. "They don't work the way they're supposed to!"

He nodded with a smile and flipped to the back of the book where an index of ingredients was. "So to correct that what do you have to do?"

She shuffled to his side and looked at the page he had open and grinned before running her finger down the list. "I need to find an ingredient that is not reactive with any of the others, but which will adjust the acidity of the potion."

Harry stepped back and grinned when he noticed her finger stopping on Firebush Weed. He watched with a satisfied smile as she rushed to the supply cabinet and grabbed the required ingredient, and carefully looked over her preparation to extract the juices. The second she added the liquid to her potion it cleared from its slightly milky appearance into a pure amethyst and she gave a small squeal of excitement before turning around and glomping her brother. Harry was, once again, completely unprepared for the assault, and found himself stiffening. She felt his tension and quickly released him with a muttered, "Sorry."

Harry, on the other hand, was trying to relax himself. He never let people into touching proximity simply because every time he had as a child he'd been punished for it. If he got too close to May he'd be slapped and sent to his room; if he got too close to family activities he'd be sent to his room for days alone. Finally he opened his eyes and sent her a small nod, and he watched her shoulders relax and the terror in her eyes that she had done something irreparable disappeared. "You can take it off the heat now," he told her quietly as he packed away his own gear and walked to the front to place a vial he had labelled with his name with the other students'.

He was about to leave when a small tug came at his elbow before quickly retreating and he turned around to see May blushing once more and looking nervously at the floor. "Thank you for helping me."

He stared at her posture and expression for several moments before allowing a small smile grace his lips, and he nodded. "I'm proud to see that you spat out the silver spoon put in your mouth." Her head snapped upwards, a look of surprise and self-pride evident on her face, and her blush deepened as a pleased smile quirked her lips. Harry turned away and continued walking before she could think about getting too chatty. "Tell me when you've finished that book," he called over his shoulder as he walked out of the room, and he caught her hurried and happy nod out the corner of his eye as he made his way down the hallway.

"I wonder if this goes any way to proving the Westermarck effect?" he mused to himself as he made his way back to the dormitory; the first day's classes cut short before the weekend to allow the students to reflect on the way things would be working. When he walked past students he heard murmurs of gossip about him and rolled his eyes –at least until he heard a mention of an article in the Daily Prophet. He approached the group the words had originated from, and they looked like deer in the headlights as he walked towards them with his hand held out. Despite them being second years they handed the folded paper to him and he walked off without a word of thanks or a glance backwards. He opened the paper to the first page and grinned at what he saw.

_Potters Abandon Family in Knockturn?_

The following article was a brilliantly written piece of delightfully insulting and down-putting journalism that called the Potter Family abusive, horrible people who abandon five year old children in the middle of the most dangerous alley in Britain. He frowned when he saw several mentions picking on May, and put that aside for later action. He found it absurd that the woman who had written the article had, six years ago, been congratulating and praising the Potters for getting rid of the squib son that would have hindered the growth of their saviour… and now she was publicly decrying their actions. It only highlighted the blatant bigotry in the magical British society, and he eventually incinerated the paper wandlessly when he was in a piece of deserted hallway free of portraits.

He spent his afternoon writing letters to Gringotts in regards several new ideas he had for protections in the bank, as well as some financial actions he wished to take. He also sent a letter to a contact he had in Taiwan about a rather rare object he wished to get his hands on. After sending both letters away with Cicero, who had morphed into an inconspicuous brown owl for the trip, he sat back in bed and ignored Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley when they came in to relax as well. They seemed just as content to go about their own business, and Harry had the pleasant thought that both would be rather good roommates.

He had just finished reading up on quad-dimensional ward schemes when the bell chimed once more in the castle, and he rolled off his bed before getting changed into a pair of jeans, a V-neck blue t-shirt, and a comfortable black hoodie that he kept unzipped. It was clearly muggle attire, especially when coupled with his pair of fluffy black slippers, and he yawned his way down to the common room before walking out of the portrait – all the while the object of surprised stares from his housemates. It wasn't just because of his clothing; it was also due to the way he looked as a person. Whereas his classmates had only seen him in formal attire before, now he was all casual – that, and he'd let his hair down. Contrary to what it looked like when in a pony-tail, it wasn't easily tamed. The only reason that it looked vaguely acceptable was because of the wandless spell he cast on it to pull it back into its forced position.

When it _wasn't_ tied back however, it came down to just past his ears and seemed to wisp slightly in an invisible breeze. Harry knew it was more feathery than his ancestor Itachi Uchiha's, but it didn't stop him releasing small bursts of magic to give it a constantly breeze-blown effect just as his teacher had done with his chakra. This time it wasn't just his sister blushing, but indeed many of the girls in the hall – though he had to admit that his sister looked the most adorable of the lot. As he sat down and started dishing up his dinner he couldn't help but wonder just what it was about the Uchiha that made them so attractive to women.

"Hey Harry, what's up with the new look?"

The emerald-eyed Uchiha turned his head to peer at Zacharias and waited a couple of seconds to unnerve him before shrugging. "Formal's good for the school day and occasions that require an air of seriousness, but it's far more comfortable to be dressed like this."

He brushed the hair out of his eyes and waited to see the reaction to his words, and got a shrug and nod of agreement in return. "Fair enough, though the muggle look's going to piss off the purebloods."

Harry gave a chuckle and shook his head at the surprised looks from everybody around him. "The 'purebloods' will be annoyed will they? We'll see what they think when I show up for breakfast tomorrow and Skeeter's done some digging into the Uchiha name."

People around him looked confused, but his only answer to their questions was a small chuckle and a shake of his head as he continued eating. Dinner ended with Dumbledore still not having made an appearance, and so McGonagall stood up and delivered the day's notices before releasing them to their own devices. Harry was just about to walk up to his room when he felt the all-too familiar tug on his sleeve, and he turned around to see May looking down at the floor nervously. "Um… I just wanted to thank you again for today in potions," she murmured, and he gave a small smile to himself before nodding.

"It wasn't a problem, but there's something else you wanted to say."

Once more Harry was thankful that his housemates were so accommodating in giving him privacy; all of them continuing on their conversations normally to mask theirs from anybody hoping to get a word or two for gossip. She nodded, blushing harder, and then reached into her pocket. He automatically twitched his wand into his hand, and she took an audible gulp but still continued. She eventually withdrew a small, woven leather bracelet worn with use, and he slipped his wand back into its holster when he saw the lack of threat. "I- I wanted to give this to you." He looked at the strand of woven material in confusion and she lowered her eyes again to look at the floor; her cheeks reddening to almost dangerous vibrancy. "I'm sorry it's so… well, tattered, but I've kept it in my pocket ever since I made it… in case I saw you."

Harry felt his eyes softening at the words, and gave a small smile before taking it from her outstretched fingertips. He grasped her hand for a moment – giving a small squeeze, and then brought it to his right wrist. He clicked his thumb and middle finger together and the strands at the end of the bracelet moved and tied themselves securely in a knot, and at his sister's awed expression he sent her a sly wink before turning on his heel and heading up to his dormitory. When he got to the top of the stairs and turned to walk into his room he looked down and saw May clutching the hand he had touched to her chest with a giddy smile on her face and gave a small laugh to himself before walking in to see Justin and Ernie looking at him with raised eyebrows.

The black-haired 'Puff looked across at Harry and cleared his throat. "You know your sister's got like, a mega crush on you, right?"

Harry gave a nod in the affirmative as he pulled off his hoodie, and Ernie leaned forwards on his bed with interest. "Well what are you going to do about it?"

When Harry removed his shirt his two roommates gasped at the scars shining in the dim light, but Harry ignored it in favour of answering with a small shrug. "I have no idea."

When he pulled off his pants his housemates made to look away, but froze when they saw the huge tooth mark scars on his right thigh. "What the bloody hell have you been doing man?"

Harry followed their eyes to his leg and then grinned. "I'll have to swear you to secrecy." They nodded firmly and Harry sent them cold looks to make sure they knew that the consequences of spreading it around would be severe. They both nodded again, though this time far more expressively, and he pulled his pyjama bottoms on. "Nudu bit me," he said, and Justin scoffed.

"Bullshit man, you'd be dead."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "You asked how I got it, and last time I looked only one creature had a jaw big enough to make a scar like that. If you don't believe me then that's fine."

He pulled a singlet over his heavily toned torso and then slid his feet into his slippers once more; the silk of his trousers changing colour briefly as he moved. "Holy shit," Ernie breathed after a few seconds and no change in Harry's expression, "you're not lying, are you?"

"No," Harry replied simply, "I'm not." He scratched at a scar that ran down his bicep and gave a small yawn before heading back to the door.

"You're going out like that?" Harry looked across at Justin with a frown and nodded, and the first year gave a nervous chuckle before shrugging. "Your funeral mate."

Wondering what on Earth his new-possible-friend was on about Harry walked out of his dorm and headed down the stairs with a spell crafting book in his hand, and narrowed his eyes when sounds in the room dimmed until it was almost silent. "Okay, Justin warned me that this would happen, what's the big deal?"

He followed the eyes of nearly everybody to his exposed arms and small amount of his chest, and finally it hit him. He cursed himself for not pushing Justin to explain so he could cover up, but it was far too late now. "How did you get all those scars?" came a small whisper from behind him, and he turned to see May staring with wide, moist eyes at his right arm – which was by far the most scarred part visible. He looked around for several moments before sighing and nodding, and then moved to sit down in one of the chairs by the fire. He turned to the seventh year prefect. "Would you mind calling a house meeting? It's best if I got any rumours or misunderstandings out of the way before the Prophet starts speculating tomorrow." The young man nodded and walked up the stairs to call into the dormitories, and May quickly claimed the seat directly opposite him before anybody else could. "So much for keeping this under wraps," he grumbled to himself.

She looked distraught, and he wondered just what her expressions would be as he told the coming story. After several minutes the entire house was present, including Professor Sprout, and Harry started. "There are parts of my story that will not be revealed, and so I ask that you simply restrict your questions to what I explain." His tone stated that this wasn't a request, rather an order, and everybody nodded. He sighed. "Everybody here surely knows who I am, and the general story of how I used to be a… _Potter_." He spat the last word, and many of the listening Hufflepuffs shivered at the venom in his tone. "Many of you are probably wondering if the Prophet was right, and I can confirm that they are – however they never got the full story.

"On my fifth birthday I was woken at two in the morning by Lilly and James Potter, and taken from the house before being apparated to Knockturn Alley." Eyes were wide, and Harry gave a humourless chuckle, unable to meet the tear-streaked face of his sister with his gaze. "Yes, as I'm sure most of you are aware Knockturn is dangerous during the day… but at night it is far more so. Vampires and other such creatures roam the alley, and its traffic increases nearly tenfold under the cover of darkness. I was left in the middle of the most dangerous part of Knockturn wearing my pyjamas; Lily and James beating a hasty retreat back home. Within minutes I had been stabbed," he motioned to his stomach but didn't move to show the scar, "and taken to a Harvester. For those that can't piece together what that means, it's a person that takes human organs and sells them." Several people looked squeamish and ill, and his head of house made to move towards him. His cold, warning glare told her to stay where she was, and she halted mid-step.

"I will skip the gory details, but the man had begun his operation before I managed to escape. Thankfully I wasn't missing anything critical except my eyes-" he heard somebody at the back of the group throw up, and saw his sister shaking in her chair opposite; tears running furiously down her cheeks. "But I managed to make it out of the alley and into Diagon. I later discovered that the Head of the Uchiha family managed to get me to Gringotts when he saw me bleeding all over the cobblestones." That was a lie, but he wasn't about to reveal to everybody that he was the man in question – and he knew that Dumbledore wouldn't be spreading it around either. "Inside I was treated by the best the Goblins had to offer, though my eyes, regrettably, were irrecoverable."

Despite the disgust and anger in faces surrounding him he saw curiosity, and had to admit that he would be as well if he was listening to this story for the first time. The truth was that the goblin guards had seen him on the stairs of their bank bleeding out, and had made to throw him into a nearby alley to die, but had smelt his blood and understood its meaning when they investigated further and tasted it. A quick inheritance test from the blood splattered all over him and his identity was confirmed, and it had all gone from there. "I was taken down to the Uchiha vault, and it was there that I was given a transplanted set of eyes belonging to an ancient ancestor – hence why my sister's eyes and mine are not the same shade." He saw several glares being sent at his distraught sister, and growled lowly in the back of his throat

Everybody's attention snapped to him and they took unconscious steps backwards when they saw his eyes darkening. "May is in no way responsible for what happened to me," he explained coldly, "which is part of the reason why I am telling you all this. She was five at the time, and had no idea that it was going to occur, and thus should not be blamed for the actions of her parents. The sole blame of everything rests upon Lily and James Potter, as well as Albus Dumbledore."

"Mister Uchiha," protested Professor Sprout, "I'll not have you spread untrue rumours about-"

"Harry's right," murmured May quietly, and Sprout looked at her in shock – her tirade cut off mid-sentence. "I can remember the Headmaster coming to my house and telling mum and dad that Harry was just going to be a nuisance… and to get rid of him somehow. He never told them how, but he told them to abandon Harry all the same."

Harry nodded his thanks to his sister, and she nodded tearfully back – her body language telling him that it was taking all the will-power she had to not run and hug him. He was thankful for her restraint. "So now I expect all of you to treat May with respect and without any animosity. Nothing the papers say to implicate her is true – and I should know more than anybody." He looked around sharply to see if there was anybody who looked disagreeable, but nodded when he saw no expressions that suggested anything. "I was adopted into the Uchiha clan a week after being saved by Lord Uchiha, and then rigorously trained – which is where most of these scars come from."

"What kind of madman would put such a young child into training like that?"

Harry grinned to himself; apparently he was a madman. "A Lord that wished to protect his legacy above everything. I was injured in my training, at points to the edge of death, but I am stronger for it. The newest of these scars is three years old, because I'm good enough to stop attacks of such ferocity now."

"Will you tell us what kind of training you went through?"

He shook his head with a small smile. "No, I'm afraid that I won't."

There looked to be several people that wanted to push the matter, but Sprout jumped in before they could. "Right, that's enough for tonight. None of you will bug Mister Uchiha or Miss Potter about anything about this, or anything personal that they don't want to share. Now back to what you were all doing!"

Everybody quickly dispersed, but Harry did notice the stares at his scars remained. He relaxed slightly now that the story was over and propped his legs up on the table in front of him before opening the book in his hand and resting his other hand over his brow. He sent a small pulse of magic into his eyes and saw everything sharpen and become far more defined, and started leafing through the pages – turning them every five seconds or so. After several minutes his companion opposite spoke. "I'm so sorry."

He looked up, deactivating his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, though not quickly enough that May didn't get a fleeting glance at his red eyes with complex black markings forming sharp, blade-like shapes. She froze for a second, wondering if she had been imagining it, but when she saw her brother's small smile understood that he was revealing that he had secrets far deeper than those he had told. "It's okay," he said calmly as he folded the corner of the page and closed the book, and nearly laughed when he saw her eyes follow the movement of his muscles with a blush on her cheeks. "It wasn't your fault, nor will it ever be."

"But I-"

"Lily and James," he interrupted, "would have gotten rid of me sooner or later. The Grimoire was simply the last straw, and it was their excuse for what they did."

"I hate them," she spat a moment later, and Harry gave an imperceptible smile as her mask slipped out of place.

"I know you do; the Sorting Hat told me." She looked up, surprised, and he gave a small chuckle. "Just keep that mask on until you get all those exercises down May, and then we can start getting to know each other." He stood up and stretched, making his sister blush again, and sent her a small smile as he fingered the bracelet he now wore around his right wrist. "And thanks, this means a lot."

As he walked away he heard her murmur a happy, "My pleasure," and hid his smile as he entered his dorm for the third time that day. As he settled down for the night and closed his eyes he smiled into the darkness that awaited him. "Perhaps I'm not destined for the darkness after all."


	3. Chapter 3

"Troll! Troll in the Dungeons! I thought you ought to know…" and then Quirrel collapsed.

Harry rolled his eyes in the seconds between silence and chaos, and stared at the man with barely concealed disbelief. People didn't faint _forwards_ for one, and secondly, well, the man's eyes were still open and looking stealthily around. Harry deactivated his Sharingan and sat back when squeals and yells of fright erupted from all around him, and had to admit that Dumbledore's "QUIET!" that rung out a moment later was rather taxing on the ears. He followed his prefect until he heard a Gryffindor muttering to Ronald Weasley, "What about Hermione? She's in the dungeon bathroom last I heard!"

He broke away from his group of students to listen further, and glowered silently at the red-head when he said, "Let the teachers take care of her – I'm not risking my life for a whiny know-it-all!" As he jogged down the empty hallways he contemplated just why the complete coward was in Gryffindor if he wasn't brave enough to go and save a housemate, but put it down to the idiocy of the young boy. It was shown frequently enough in class, and it wasn't hard to see how it would transfer to outside of school as well. He finally caught up with the huge beast as it lumbered its way into the girls' bathroom, and he silently followed it until he heard the sound of muffled sobs. He pushed magic into his eyes and watched as his perception sharpened and changed, and then cleared his throat. "Miss Granger, I would advise you do not move a single inch, nor make any further sound. There is currently a mountain troll outside of your cubicle, and it has a rather large club. Stay where you are until I tell you otherwise, am I understood?"

He received a small sob as an answer, and stared at the huge troll who was now staring at him in complete and utter confusion. Why, after all, would a puny human virtually ask to be killed? That line of thought was quickly overridden by the more dominant 'oh, look, something to kill' side of its brain, and it made to step towards him and raise its club. "Tsukuyomi," Harry intoned quietly, and a moment later he found himself standing in front of the huge beast in a huge, empty world bleached of colour – existing in only shades of grey with crimson skies moving slowly overhead.

The difference here was that the troll was chained to a cross, and Harry was quite free to move around.

Within her cubicle Hermione frowned and rubbed at her eyes wondering if she'd been tricked, and curiously she peered out of the cubicle. She was shocked and terrified when she saw a huge beast that stunk of rot standing still with its back to her. She moved slightly to see what it was looking at, and her eyes widened when she saw the boy who had constantly, without fail, beaten her in every single class. He was standing there in his black fluffy slippers looking as cool as a cucumber, and then she saw his eyes. From her distance she couldn't see the intricate black markings, but it was clear he wasn't displaying the usual emerald green, and she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp. She watched as his eyes morphed back into their usual state, and then gaped when the Troll simply collapsed to the ground, shivering uncontrollably before, with a herculean effort, raising its club and bringing it down as hard as it could upon its own head. Gore stained the ground in a disgusting splatter-like pattern, and Hermione retched.

Harry, on the other hand, looked down at his slippers and tutted when he saw a fragment of skull sitting there; white and red against the black fluff. He kicked it off and then turned around when several professors – including the Headmaster, came running around the corner. Every single one of them froze when they saw Harry standing unharmed in front of the very dead beast, and he stared back as if he'd just _not_ faced down an adult mountain troll by himself. "Mister Uchiha-"

McGonagall cut herself off when Hermione stepped out of the cubicle, still staring with wide eyes at the dead troll, and Harry cleared his throat to get her attention back on him. "Professors, I heard from a Gryffindor that Hermione was down in the dungeon bathrooms, however one Ronald Weasley – the reason for her being down here crying in the first place," he'd gathered that through the tone of the young Weasley's voice, "told the worried Gryffindor to 'let the professors handle it' and made no move to inform anybody with authority. As such my good conscience would not allow somebody defenceless to face down a troll, so I came to investigate before… eliminating the threat."

"Y-you killed this mountain troll, Mister Uchiha?" questioned a stunned Professor Sprout, and Harry turned to her before looking around the room and nodding.

"I am the only person other than Miss Granger present, ma'am, and since she's clearly freaking out I believe I was only one capable."

"But… how?"

"H-He made it kill itself!" blurted Hermione, and Harry closed his eyes with a wince.

The silly little authority-loving girl had just dropped him, her saviour, head-first into a vat of trouble. "Of course the first spell you will be thinking of it the Imperius curse," he said before any preconceptions could be created, "and I assure you that that is not the case. The curse I used was aktivieren; a German spell used to animate inanimate objects and control them. Since trolls are so stupid it was focusing on walking towards me rather than raising its arm, and so I used the spell to make it smash its club into its own head. You may scan my wand if you so wish." He received a stern nod from Dumbledore, and handed his wand over – but not before silently casting said spell on a dust mote by the door. When the man performed _Prior Incantato_ he received the correct information and frowned before making to wave the wand around.

Harry snatched it from his fingertips with a cold glare, much to the shock of every other professor. "Headmaster, I gave permission for you to test my wand for its last spell, not to wave it around and _use _it."

"It felt wrong, Mister Uchiha," the old man defended hurriedly, "I simply wished to know why."

Eyes turned towards him, and he sent the old man a smirk. "That would be because the shaft of the wand is my femur," he explained, much to the shock of everybody but McGonagall that already knew of its composition, "after it had been polluted by the venom of a Nudu."

"Impossible," sneered Snape, "you're just as arrogant and useless as your father. To say such a thing clearly shows your intelligence."

"Ah," Harry remanded as one would a child, "but that's why it feels wrong for the Headmaster – it is attuned to me and me alone."

"Absurd-"

"Severus," Albus interrupted the man mid-insult before turning back to Harry looking drawn and old. "It didn't just feel odd, Mister Uchiha… it felt Dark."

"Ah, well that would be on account of the Nudu venom," Harry explained easily, "you know, it being one of the darkest creatures alive. And it doesn't feel dark, Headmaster, as you fully know. Suspicion is easy to cast, but when proven wrong… well the suspicion turns completely." He held out his wand to his Head of House, handle first, and she tentatively took it before gasping as power flushed through her body. After several moments she stared at it with awe and handed it back to Harry, who stowed it safely back in its holster.

"It's as far from Dark as I believe possible," she assured her co-workers, and Harry watched with amusement as Dumbledore frowned at him, and the suspicion previously focused on Harry turned onto him.

"I must be going," the preteen said calmly, "things to do and all that."

"And his eyes changed too! They went all red!"

Harry now very much disliked the brown-haired witch, and wondered if it was really worth saving her. "Mister Uchiha, I must ask that you accompany me to the medical bay to check for any dark taints within your system."

Harry turned to Dumbledore with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure you wish to start this early, _Headmaster_?"

The white-haired man stopped for a moment and then stifled his glare. "Very well, Mister Uchiha, off with you."

Harry smirked and turned on his heel, but once more paused when McGonagall announced, "And thirty points to Hufflepuff for doing what my Lions wouldn't." He turned around to give the Scotswoman a thankful smile, but was slightly surprised to see the woman focusing with disappointment on Hermione. "And twenty points from Gryffindor."

Hermione's head snapped up to look at her Head of House, and she looked more upset than she had when seeing the gore. "But Prof-"

"That young man," she pointed at Harry who was watching with interest, "saved your _life_. You would have _died_ were it not for him, and yet the moment the opportunity arises to thank him, instead of doing so you instead attempt to please us by getting him in trouble. I am not pleased, nor am I impressed with your actions Miss Granger. Go back to your dormitory and think about your actions."

Harry watched the blur of brown rush past him and raised an eyebrow at the sobs he could hear. After a moment's looking at her retreating back he put his hands in his pockets and walked away with a wave over his shoulder. "Thank you Professor McGonagall, enjoy your evening Professors."

They were all too shocked to reply.

When Harry finally arrived back in the Hufflepuff common room he found himself tackled by May, and only just managed to not fall over by ducking down, flipping her over his back, and then spinning around before grabbing her 'round her waist to stop her from face planting. She broke away almost immediately and glowered at him. "Where were you?"

"I was in the dungeons," he said calmly, drawing the full attention of everybody present, "and killed the troll before it could kill Hermione Granger, who was down there bawling her eyes out because of Ronald Weasley." He sat down in one of the chairs by the fire and curled his feet up next to him before drawling, "And for my efforts I got Hufflepuff plus thirty points, and Gryffindor negative twenty."

"How did you get Gryffindor to lose twenty, and how in the hell did you beat a troll?" one of the third years asked, and Harry gave a small chuckle, but it was clearly a bitter one.

"Well okay, that wasn't entirely me. Rather than thanking me for saving her life, Miss Granger attempted to gain favour with the staff by getting me in trouble." Slackened jaws met his words and he was internally happy that they didn't push how he'd defeated the troll. He shrugged as his sister settled opposite. "I know; I was surprised as you are – but more so that it was McGonagall that deducted the points."

There were a few more questions asked before everybody left him alone, and eventually it was just him and May sitting by the fire. After everybody had gone to bed he snatched a thrown object out of the air reflexively, and then raised an eyebrow when he saw that it was the book he had written on mind protection. "You've finished it?" he asked with surprise, and she nodded to him – her face set. He smiled and withdrew his wand, and she tensed slightly. "Well I'm going to have to test you, if you don't mind."

After a moment she shook her head, and he silently cast the legilimens spell. He felt himself slam into her Occlumency defences and prowled the edges of them to check for any irregularities before stepping through the barriers as if they didn't even exist. He felt her shock at the intrusion, but continued on anyways – raising his eyebrows when he saw snippets of memory floating past him. He eventually came to her magic wall, and he probed it carefully to test its strength. He increased the pressure until he felt it start to fracture, and then cut his connection; finding himself staring at his panting sister who had a sheen of sweat across her brow. He, conversely, looked as if he hadn't even been trying.

"It's good enough," he declared after a moment's thought, and he watched her eyes light up with glee, at least until he pulled out the addition. "But it's going to need work before it's fully ready for a head on battle. Nobody but me, to the best of my knowledge, knows how to walk through Occlumency barriers, so that would slow your attacker down some, but knowing the strength of Dumbledore's attacks by personal experience he would break you in less than ten seconds. It'd take him maybe a minute with your magic dome, but he'd get through all the same." Her face dropped and he realized how critical he'd sounded. "But don't get me wrong May; it's more than enough for us to start getting to know each other. I simply couldn't risk the old man getting into your mind and discovering anything I told you, and at least with this you can knock off passive attacks, and be aware and able to get out of his range when he tries and go all out on you."

He watched a broad smile spread over her face and grinned himself, managing to only slightly tense up when she jumped and hugged him. Finally she pulled away, eyes bright with happiness, and grinned at him. "So spill, where've you been?"

He smiled and sat back in his chair, "Depends on what time of my life you're talking about. I've been all around; most of Europe and Asia; a fair amount of the Arab countries… New Zealand on a couple of occasions."

She stared at him, wide eyed, before looking almost wistful. "I wish I'd been travelling. James and Lilly are pretty attached to Britain."

He smiled at hearing her refer to them by their first names and nodded. "I'm not surprised really. If they did go overseas then they'd be set upon by most magical communities for what they'd done to me. Squibs play a huge part in foreign wizarding economies, as well as muggles – or mundanes as they call them in America. If they'd done such a thing in Germany, for instance, they'd be sentenced to life in prison for child abuse and attempted murder."

May stared at Harry, agape. "But… but here everybody agreed with what they did!"

Harry nodded, "Well when it happened, yeah. Now they know the truth James and Lilly are pretty hated – due in no small part to the Daily Prophet. And now that I've been identified as a member of one of the Founding Four families… well, Lilly and James are going to try and do anything in their power to get me to accept the Potter name again so they can merge and take control of the Uchiha House."

He heard a snort, and turned his head to see May looking rather venomous. "Sounds like what they'd do."

"So you're not a fan of the Potters then?" She snapped her head to glare at him, and he chuckled before nodding, "I was just winding you up. So let's just say, for instance, that there was the possibility of you leaving the Potters so that they technically didn't have any power over you… what would you say to that?"

"Bring it on! Just so long as the House taking me in wasn't Dark."

"I'm Dark," he revealed casually, and she shot him a look of disbelief. "Really," he explained, "I am. I'm more experienced with Dark Magic than light, and that's seriously saying something. And then there's the other powers I have… and they're definitely considered Dark."

"Yeah, but you're nice," she protested, and he grinned.

"So if it was a family who was nice that decided to take you in, you'd be happy?"

She looked conflicted, but then nodded. "And if they treated me like an adult and didn't try and run my life in any way."

"Oooh, tall order there sis." He saw her eyes flash and a blush rocket across her cheeks, and heard her mutter an apology to him. "What for?"

She looked up at him, deadpan despite the redness across her cheeks. "Me having a crush on you."

Harry raised his eyebrows; he hadn't expected her to say it so directly. "I don't see the problem, to be quite honest."

She stuttered for a moment before changing the subject – her blush several times worse than it had been. "So why are you asking me all this?"

He laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders; for the very first time initiating contact. She looked down in embarrassment as her cheeks flared, but Harry ignored it and stared at the fire. "Why, because I'm an Uchiha is why!"

She looked up, confused, and he smiled down at her – making her hurriedly avert her eyes again. "So?"

"So as a member of the Founding Four I have the right to take four people from any family besides those of the Founding Four, and integrate them into mine."

She looked up at him with narrowed eyes. "Yours?" He flashed her a secretive grin and winked, and she gasped after a moment. "You!" She looked around hurriedly to see if she'd drawn any attention, and breathed sigh of relief when she saw that they were all alone. She lowered her voice to a hushed whisper. "You're a _Lord_?"

He gave a sly smirk, "I could be."

"Would you really make me an Uchiha?"

He stared down at her seriously for several moments, and then nodded. "Yes, but you would have to know the rules of my House and the possible consequences of your actions should you decide to accept."

"Anything," she offered immediately, and he sent her a small smile.

"And that's the first rule; don't jump into things without thinking first, or knowing the full story. My House is a prestigious one to be in, and you need to know how to act befitting of your station – so you'll need training. Your shields will need to be _perfect_, and you will require tuition in the battle arts, inclusive of Black and Dark magic. Unfortunately, May, you'll also require some new eyes."

She stared at him with a small smirk, but that faded quickly when she saw that he wasn't joking. "Eyes?" she squeaked, and jumped when his green orbs twisted and muddied into brown before clearing and revealing his fully fledged Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. She gasped at the beauty of the design in his irises, and watched as they muddied once more before clearing to his usual emerald. "You are my twin, and so you will have the necessary markers within yourself to survive a transplant of the Sharingan – it's what the eyes are called. James and Lilly are not capable of it, but combined their genes made us."

"What is the Sharingan?"

Harry settled down further and suddenly realized that he still had his arm around May's shoulders. Looking at her he saw that she didn't seem to mind, and indeed seemed to be snuggling in further to his one-armed embrace, and so stayed as he was. "The Sharingan is something called a bloodline. To the best of my knowledge it is the only one that is still in existence. It grants the user the ability of an incredible increase in perception. We see everything as if it's moving at a snail's pace, and can react accordingly. It allows us to copy techniques – which is especially useful. If you have your Sharingan activated when watching, let's say Dumbledore, in a duel, and you saw him perform a non-vocal transfiguration, you could easily replicate the feat at a later date yourself. It's cheating, I suppose, but it's helpful. Of course you still need to practice the copied spells to get it right for you, but the principal is still there. We can see, for a short amount of time, what a person is going to do, and that makes us almost unbeatable in battle.

"Our bodies naturally adjust to the increased possibilities, and we become stronger, faster, and fitter. But with the Sharingan that I have access to, and which you will if you accept my proposal, we gain several other abilities – more dangerous than you can fathom. One allows us to trap somebody within a mindscape under our total control, and within ten seconds make them experience up to one hundred and fifty days' worth of whatever we wish – whether it is torture, training, talking… anything we wish. Another ability allows us to create un-blockable flames wherever we focus, and even Protego Maxima has no effect on preventing exposure. There are two more, arguably more dangerous techniques on top of them, but I will save them for later. Suffice to say that the Sharingan will allow you to learn a hundred times faster in all things, as well as have a far, far better chance in a fight."

"How is this a hard decision?" she asked him after a moment, "How is it even a decision at all? My options are to either stay in the same family as James and Lilly and be under their thumbs, and by extension Dumbledore's, or to be accepted into yours which will give me freedom, independence, and more power than most can fathom." She looked up at him and shook her head with a small smile. "How is that even a choice?"

Harry sent her a knowing smile. "You know what you want then? I assume that even telling you that you'd still have to pretend to be a Potter wouldn't change your mind?" She looked at him, confused, and he shrugged. "The Girl-Who-Lived abandoning the Potters would cause all sorts of complicated things to happen, and draw even more attention from Dumbledore. If the shit hit the fan then I could easily step in and legally take you away, but it would be better for all if you pretended to still be a Potter."

"But I don't want to go back to James and Lilly!" she hissed vehemently, and Harry nodded as he sunk into thought. After several minutes he mumbled something under his breath and held his hand out to her as he stood. She took it curiously, although blushing all the way to the tips of her ears, and was surprised when he pulled her towards the door and made no move to let her hand leave his. Nobody was around by this point, so their actions weren't shocking anybody but her, and she hissed under her breath as they stepped out into the corridors of Hogwarts. "What are you doing?"

He looked back at her tagging reluctantly behind him, and he raised a curious eyebrow. "I was going to take you to Gringotts to get this all sorted."

She looked shocked and actually walked normally for a moment before resisting once more and squeezed his hand to bring his attention to it. "I meant holding my hand!"

When he next looked back she noticed that he had his Sharingan activated, but was paying more attention to his answer, which left her gobsmacked. "You have a crush on me, and I think you're pretty. You also have a pretty awesome personality from what I've seen so far… so I'm holding your hand to show that your attraction is not one sided."

"But I'm your twin sister!"

He grinned and cocked his head to the side. "And has that prevented you from having a crush on me?" That stopped her in her tracks, figuratively, and she didn't even notice when he pulled her in-behind a tapestry when two prefects rounded the corner. "And besides, it's completely natural."

"Natural?" she nearly yelled, and Harry was very happy he'd erected wards around where they were to prevent the prefects from hearing them. "We're brother and sister, Harry! _Brother and sister_!"

"And we grew up separately," he explained as he pulled her along the hallway once more after the prefects had left; her hand still held within his own – and lightly as well. Despite her heated argument that what he was proposing was wrong, her body betrayed her true feelings. "And because we grew up separately our minds never made that mental 'don't find them attractive' connection – which is why it's natural. And besides, inbreeding is the only problem in such a relationship – and we're magical so we'd be able to prevent any abnormalities if we ever got that far." He turned his head and smiled at her, "Hence why I don't see a problem, and even if there was, you haven't pulled your hand out of mine yet."

At his mention of her lack of resistance she pulled slightly, but then stopped herself. He could see the warring emotions flooding over her face as she thought hard about what he had said. Once more she was so absorbed that she didn't see when he led them into a hidden passage, and only started paying attention again when he stopped in the middle of the underground tunnel – lit only by Harry's dim _lumos_ spell. "Where are we?"

"We just crossed the wardline of Hogwarts," he explained, "and now I intend to apparate. Have you ever side-alonged before?" He saw her slightly queasy expression and gave a warm laugh that made her want to pull closer to him. "Not the most pleasant I agree, however I assure you that my apparations are more comfortable than any other." She gave a surprised squeak when he pulled her into his arms, and she felt as if she was going to faint with the amount of blood rushing to her face – which she buried quickly into his chest to stop him from seeing. He chuckled at her actions and twisted on the spot, and after a moment of feeling all sense of direction disappear their feet his solid ground once more.

May looked curiously out of her brother's chest, and jolted when she saw that they were looking out into Diagon Alley from within a small side street. "Robe, May?" She turned to see her brother smiling at her, Sharingan still active, holding out a black bundle to her, and she thankfully wrapped it around herself when the cold started nipping at her – dressed only in her school skirt and white top. "Hoods up," he instructed after a moment, and the second the fabric had covered her hair she felt herself warm up. "Shadow charms on the hoods," Harry explained as they began walking, "as well as custom comfort charms. When it's hot the cloaks are cool, and when it's cool they're warm. Simple enough, but it's shocking just how many witches and wizards don't know how to cast the simplest enchantments."

"Harry… I'm not ready for anything yet."

He looked down at her, a couple of inches shorter, and sent her a reassuring smile. "I know that, and I wasn't suggesting that we do. I've only just 'met' you really, and I look forward to getting to know my sister better. I simply told you what I did so that you didn't discount the possibility. I don't see what we could someday have as taboo, and neither should you."

She nodded after a moment and sent him a return smile, and the two walked into Gringotts bank. May was surprised when the guards didn't ask them to remove their hoods, but clutched Harry's hand tighter and moved closer to his side as they walked through the foyer and into the very bowels. "What are you doing?" she hissed fearfully as they passed more and more guards, "It's taboo for humans to step foot past the lobby without an escort!"

"I'm a little different," he informed her with a small smirk, "you'll see when we meet Ragnok."

"The King?" she squeaked in shock, and Harry gave a laugh as he nodded.

"Yes, King Ragnok – just here."

She made to hold him back, but instead found him opening the door wide open without even knocking, and pulling her in after her. "Ragnok!"

The goblin in question, the most powerful Goblin in all of Europe, looked up from the papers at his desk and instead of ordering their deaths as May had been expecting, grinned widely and stepped out from behind his desk. "Harry!" he greeted warmly, as he strode over and gripped the Uchiha's hand friendlily, "It's good to see you again! It's been a while since you came in person."

Harry lowered his hood to reveal an equally wide and friendly smile, and May hesitantly removed her own hood seeing as she wasn't dead yet. "Miss Potter," the King of Goblins greeted after a moment's surprise, "well this is interesting. Please, both of you take a seat and we can talk." Harry led May over to two comfortable leather chairs sitting in front of Ragnok's desk, and finally let her hand go when she was settled. He himself sat down, and grinned before placing his thumb and forefinger of his right hand a couple of centimetres apart when Ragnok held up a glass and tumbler of amber liquid.

May quickly shook her head when the goblin's gaze swept questioningly to her, and a moment later she watched the goblin that was known to murder humans that broke the rules of his bank hand her brother a glass of… whatever it was. "Brandy," Harry helpfully supplied at her confused expression, "usually aged over one hundred years if it's in this room."

He took a sip of the liquid and grinned after a moment before leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs casually. "I don't believe it Ragnok; you finally managed to get your hands on a Remy Martin Louis Thirteen Black Perl." The goblin in question nodded and raised his glass a fraction to signal his acknowledgement of Harry's tasting prowess, and May looked at Harry, confused. He smiled across at her and explained the significance. "This brandy is perhaps the most exclusive in the world. What's in my glass right now is worth nearly two thousand pounds, or three hundred and fifty galleons." She gaped at the figure and he held the glass out to her before giving a reassuring nod. "Have a taste, just a small sip if you've never had spirits before."

She hesitantly took it from his fingers and lifted it to her mouth, and gave a small shudder when she saw that her lips would be overlaying where the almost-invisible lip-prints of her brothers were. She took a tiny sip; just enough to coat her tongue before giving a small cough and pulling the glass away, and Harry took it before grinning. "Just wait a moment for the presentation."

It only took a moment too, whereupon a delicious aftertaste of roses and spice rolled across her taste buds; bursting with hidden flavour and velvety smoothness. She stared at the amber liquid with wonder, and Harry gave a chuckle before sipping at it once more and nodding his appreciation after a moment. "A truly wonderful brandy – thank you for sharing it with me Ragnok."

The goblin in question raised his glass and smiled. "Always a pleasure to share a drink with somebody who truly appreciates it. Now what can I do for you this fine school night, Lord Uchiha?"

Harry leaned back father and rested his glass on his knee. "My sister wishes to join my family, and I am inclined to grant her request. She loathes James and Lilly for what they did to me, and so I see no reason to allow them to have May under their thumb."

"A retainer then… I'll fetch-"

"No, Ragnok," Harry interrupted with a small wave, "not a retainer. I wish to formally adopt her into my family with everything that entails."

Ragnok sat back in his chair with wide eyes. "It's dangerous Harry, you know that."

"We're twins," he argued, "and her magic is resonant with mine. I have faith that she will take to the last implants in the vault with ease."

"And what of the ninth clause? There is only one more pair of eyes in the vault Harry, and if we transplant your sister then there will be none."

"Ragnok, I believe that there is a high possibility that the ninth clause may be getting its due tonight."

The goblin's eyes shot open with surprise, and after a moment the King gave a hoarse laugh and shook his head as he smiled at Harry. "Never normal, are you?"

"I tried once, but me and normal had a rather messy break up. I don't think we'll be getting back together."

Ragnok shook his head with a small smile. "Very well, to the vault then?"

"To the vault," Harry agreed before draining the last of his glass, and the two friends stood at the same time. Ragnok shook his head to himself when he saw May Potter, the Girl-Who-Lived, take her brother's hand as if it was second nature and move close to his side, and led the pair from his office and into a nearby room in which a cart was waiting. The difference between the cart before them and the one normally taken by customers was quite noticeable. Harry helped May into one of the comfortable seats, and the moment they were all seated it slowly took off; as smooth as could be. The ride down took mere seconds, and Ragnok opened the small side-door to allow Harry to step out onto the ancient stone passage. May looked curiously around, and despite the fact she thought she couldn't be surprised any more that night, when she saw the number two above the stone wall in front of them she couldn't help but gape.

"The Uchiha Vault," Harry informed her needlessly, "number two, and right beside vault one," he motioned a few meters down the platform where the number in question was presented in gold on the wall, "the Emrys Vault… better known as the Merlin Vault."

She watched with wide eyes as her brother stepped forwards and pressed his hand against the wall, and then pulled back as he rolled his eyes. "Why did you let Itachi be vault guardian?" he asked Ragnok over his shoulder, and the Goblin smirked with a shrug. May simply looked confused. "Unbelievable," she heard Harry murmur, and then he muttered something under his breath. She stumbled backwards in shock when a wave of black flames burst into being against the wall, and watched with awe as her brother simply stood calmly waiting. After several seconds there was finally a click and the stone swung inwards, and a moment after that the flames disappeared as if they had never been – saves the glowing red stone of the floor. "Lucky, Itachi, that I didn't decide to use Susanoo."

"W-what was that?"

Harry turned his head over his shoulder and grinned before motioning her to his side. She found her hand within his once more as they stepped over the threshold, and listened to him as they walked down the stone-walled passage. "That was Amaterasu; Illuminating Heaven; the flame technique that the Sharingan, or rather the Mangekyō Sharingan, grants its user. Of course it also heavily damages the eye."

She looked sharply up at him, and frowned when she saw him not even wincing. He grinned down at her and winked, "But I don't have that form of the Sharingan; I possess the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan – and that negates the damage that the techniques cause."

"And what about me?" May questioned after a moment, and Harry smiled down at her before pulling her closer into his side.

She blushed, but didn't move to pull away. "I wouldn't give you the Sharingan if it wasn't the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. The pain of damage to the eyes is excruciating, and I wouldn't wish that on most of my enemies, let alone my wonderful sister."

She couldn't stifle the blush, and Harry's laughter rang in her ears as they came into a huge cavern.

Filled almost to the brim with gold and gems.

May forgot all about his brother's compliment at that moment, and simply stared with a gaping jaw at the wealth being displayed in front of her. "It all comes to around thirteen trillion galleons," Harry informed her as he walked over to one of the walls not obscured by coin, "not including properties I also own. Merlin's Vault holds around the same if rumour serves correct."

"Y-I never thought so much gold even _existed_!"

He turned his head over his shoulder and grinned, "Neither did I. Now come over here and have a look."

She somehow managed to tear her eyes away from the mountain of gold and walked stiffly towards where her brother was waiting, and looked at what he was pointing at. She recoiled when she saw two eyeballs looking back at her, and he laughed. "Yes, it is unsettling – but these will be your eyes if you accept."

She forced herself to look at them, and managed by pretending that they were just props. The irises were a deep, forest green – several shades darker than her own eyes – but seemed to hold an allure that she had only seen displayed by Veela. She tried to imagine waking up to see those eyes looking back at her in the mirror, and after several seconds getting used to the idea found it far less unnerving than she thought it would be. After several seconds her eyes lit up and she looked at Harry. "I won't have Lily's eyes anymore!"

He laughed and nodded. "I wasn't really in the position to worry about that when I had mine transplanted… but yes, that's a rather fantastic upside in my opinion. The less of James and Lilly I can have in me the better."

She nodded to herself, and Harry stayed silent to let her think. She took nearly five minutes, but turned to where he was filling up a bag with galleons once she was done. He looked up, having seen her movement out the corner of his eye, and smiled when she gave him a determined nod. "Very well," he murmured after a moment, and stood up before approaching her and taking the jar which contained the two eyes held in stasis. "I'm not going to question your judgment, because I trust that you thought it over seriously," he told her as he walked over to a slab of stone against the opposite wall, "but I will warn you that this will hurt. A lot. I'm going to have to paralyze you so that you don't move, and then I'll have to take out your eyes. That alone is excruciating, especially because I'm going to be careful about it, but then there's the implanting of the Sharingan," he jiggled the jar to bring attention to what he was talking about.

"As the nerves connect you will feel pain like you've never even imagined. The fact that the Sharingan will then unlock the parts of you sealed away so they can operate to full capacity… that will be even more painful."

"What about pain potion," May asked nervously, and Harry shook his head before motioning for her to lie down on the stone bed.

"It interferes with your magic, and that could destroy the eyes." He placed a pillow under her head as she lay down, and she looked up at him apprehensively. "No hard feelings if you pull out now May," he assured her, "if you want to wait a few years, or just never want to go through such pain, then that's fine. I can simply make you a retainer of the Uchiha House."

"I want this," she murmured immediately, "and… and if you went though it then I can too."

He smiled proudly and nodded. "Alright then. I'm going to paralyze you now, okay?"

She nodded after a deep breath, and with a small swish of his wand she felt herself freeze in place; the only thing unfrozen appearing to be her chest as her lungs moved. She watched him open her eyes wide with his fingers, and then uncap the lid of the jar before leaning towards her and pointing his wand directly at her eyes; its needle-like tip disappearing to her vision. "Last chance to pull out, two sharp breaths to quit." After several seconds and no such signal he nodded, and the last thing May Potter's eyes saw was her brother's wand moving in a sharp, slashing motion.

And then all she knew was pain.

Stabbing, burning, unfathomable pain. It burst into her head like an explosion, only it never stopped. It only increased in its intensity as time went on; never seeming to reach a crescendo or peak – simply becoming more and more agonizing. She couldn't even tell if the pain was coming from her eyes; her nerves were so overloaded that the origin was unclear – but what felt like a lifetime later the pain suddenly ceased as if it had never begun. Her rattling screams slowly petered off into sobs as she felt cloth cover her face and be tied around the back of her head, and then she felt smooth skin slowly rub itself tenderly over her cheek.

Harry Potter looked down at his sister with pained eyes as he gently swiped away the bloody tears that stained her cheeks, and he cooed softly to her; telling her that it was all over now and that there was going to be no more pain. Finally after she had calmed he released the paralysis, and watched as she curled herself into a ball and shivered on the stone slab. He carefully picked her up and drew her into his lap, and ran his hands reassuringly though her hair as he held her. It took nearly half an hour for the sobbing to stop, but the shivering still remained. "I can't see," she whispered unsteadily, complete terror lacing her voice, and he shook his head.

"It's okay; I put a bandage over your eyes. Unfortunately it will take several days before I can uncover them, so you'll be in bed for the next week. I've got a doppelganger sorted for you so nobody'll get suspicious." She gave a jerky nod against his chest and snuggled deeper into his embrace, and he rested his chin on top of her head. "Does it hurt anymore?"

She shook her head slightly after a moment. "No… but it aches."

He nodded; that was completely normal as the Sharingan slowly unlocked the neural pathways it required. "I can give you a pain potion for that," he said quietly, "now that the implant has been successful."

She was silent for several seconds. "How did you do it?" she asked quietly, "when you were taking out my eyes I could barely think… but you said you had been stabbed, cut open, and had your eyes removed when you escaped. How did you still _work_?"

He gave a small, humourless chuckle and shrugged. "I don't know. To this day I have no idea how I managed, but perhaps I was just too stubborn to lie down and die."

They sat there in silence for nearly an hour before Harry stood up and gingerly helped May to her feet, but caught her when her legs collapsed from underneath her. "I got you," he murmured, and then moved around to her front before bending down. "Piggyback. Put your arms around my neck and hold on, 'kay?" She did so; hugging herself to his back, and he stood easily up – carrying her extra weight as if she weighted little more than a feather. He put his hands behind him and underneath her bum to support her, and got a small gasp near his ear for his trouble. "Mind out of the gutter my dear May," he mumbled with a smile, "your arms are still weak; I'm taking the weight off."

"Oh." He could almost hear the blush staining her cheeks as a dim roar.

When they emerged out of the vault Ragnok was waiting, reading a magazine of some kind in the front of the cart, and he looked up at them with a raised eyebrow to Harry. "Success?"

Harry gently placed May into one of the seats and sat beside her, holding her steady, and nodded. "Yes."

"Well it's too late now to not be sure about that clause Harry."

The young man gave a small laugh and nodded. "Yes, Ragnok, yes it is."

"What is this clause?" May mumbled tiredly, and Harry blushed a little before shaking his head.

"Nothing you need to worry about May, it's something I have to deal with." He nodded to Ragnok, and the group made their way leisurely back to the surface floor of the bank – Harry once more helping May by piggybacking her. "Use my office to apparate out," the goblin King offered, and Harry send him a thankful smile before bidding him goodbye and popping away with a barely audible squeak.

He stumbled slightly when they touched down in the hidden tunnel, but managed to steady himself in time so that he didn't fall over and hurt May. He carried her carefully into Hogwarts, and within ten minutes was stepping into the Hufflepuff common room with his sister still clutching tightly around his neck. "You okay?" he asked quietly, and he felt her nod into his shoulder.

"It aches more though." He nodded and carried her up into his dormitory, and made very sure to be quiet until they were both within the confines of his curtains, which he hurriedly closed. "Where are we?"

He sat back to get a good view of her face and answered with a small smirk. "My bed."

He wasn't disappointed, and watched as the flush rose to being before deepening and spreading downwards to her chest. Her face was twisted into an expression of horror, and he couldn't help but laugh loudly – which made her take pause. "We're not on your bed, are we?" she huffed, and Harry grinned as he unshrunk his trunk before rummaging around in his potions store.

"Ah, yes actually, we are. I need to keep an eye on you to make sure your recover, and it's also the safest place for you to stay. Your doppelganger will be sleeping in your bed in your dorm. I've got all kinds of wards around my bed so that your presence will stay a secret, so don't worry about being seen."

"And where are you going to sleep?" she asked nervously, and he raised an eyebrow as he uncorked a pain relief potion.

"Open your mouth," he instructed, and she did so. Her face twisted at the taste of the liquid, but she swallowed it anyways, and after several seconds gave a sigh of relief as the ache dulled to almost nothing. "I'll be sleeping here as well," he told her, and watched the blush flare into existence once more, "but I promise on my honour that there'll be no funny business. Adjusting to the Sharingan can be rather disorientating, especially if you happen to enter Tsukuyomi by accident. I can pull you out of it if need be, but anybody else wouldn't even know where to start – they'd just think you were in a coma."

"Oh… well I suppose that's alright then – but only if you promise that nothing will happen."

He rested his hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly, despite her not being able to see. "I promise, May, I'm not going to do anything you don't want me to do." She gave a small nod after a moment and then wavered. Harry gave a small smile. "You must be exhausted after that, so go to sleep now and don't panic when you wake up and see nothing." He watched as she nodded and shuffled up to the top of the bed, and within seconds her breathing had deepened and she had fallen still. He cast a subtle ward over her body and tied it to himself, and felt an awareness of her mental state wash over him. It was a short-distance ward; only capable of transmitting a kilometre from the source, but for Hogwarts that would be perfectly fine.

He transfigured her clothes into something more comfortable before changing himself – completely unembarrassed as his sister was asleep and technically blind on top of that, before moving up to the head of the bed and carefully rolling her to one side so he had room to sleep as well. Actually performing the ritual, as well as experiencing the emotions that accompanied seeing May in so much pain by his hand, had left him exhausted as well, and he promptly felt consciousness slipping away from him as he sunk into his pillow.

* * *

**Review if you have a moment!**


	4. Chapter 4

May slept for a straight three days before finally awakening from her slumber, and Harry was at dinner when it happened. He felt the stirring through the ward and politely excused himself from his friends before leaving the Great Hall – all the while aware of Dumbledore's eyes staring at him. When he was half-way to the common room he felt panic surge across the connection, and quickened his pace. As soon as he stepped through the portrait he darted up the stairs and opened the curtains, seeing May frantically tearing at the cloth covering her eyes. He jumped on top of her and pinned her arms before she could damage the precious green orbs underneath. "May, MAY! It's Harry, and everything's okay, remember? I gave you the Sharingan and you're in my bed, just calm down." He warily let her arms free and a moment later found his sister's hand roaming across his face.

"Harry?" He was sure she could feel the heat in his cheeks because her hands quickly retreated and a blush spread across her own. "What's the time?"

"Just past dinner," he informed her quietly, keeping his tone controlled as he readjusted the bandages across her eyes, "three days after you were last awake." He wasn't surprised to see speechless surprise, and explained. "As I told you; the transplant takes a lot out of you. That, and it's easier for the Sharingan to make the changes in your brain when consciousness isn't meddling with the same parts it wants access to." He conjured a cool cloth to wipe her sweat-beaded forehead with, and smiled when he heard a breathy sigh come from her lips.

"So has anything happened?"

He nodded. "Our oh-so-esteemed Headmaster has been firing compulsion spells at your doppelganger daily, attempting to get you to become friends with myself, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger, and to go and look at the Third Floor Corridor."

Her face crinkled with dislike. "You mean that… pig that eats at the Gryffindor table?"

Harry gave a chuckle, "Ah, yes, him. As for the Third Floor Corridor… well there's a Cerberus up there."

May shot upwards before wavering and falling back onto the mattress, and Harry shook his head with a small smile. "You might want to refrain from moving suddenly for a while; your body is changing just as much as your mind. So yes, there's a Cerberus up there protecting a trapdoor. And through that trapdoor is Devil's Snare, and underneath that is a chamber full of flying keys, which one must catch the one to unlock the door on the other side of the room. Through there is a huge game of chess, proceeded by a troll, and past the troll is a potion puzzle."

She looked up at him, and he was sure that if her eyes were visible he'd be the victim of a deadpan stare. "I assume that because you know all of this you're been and beaten all of these potentially lethal tests."

"Ah, yes. You would be correct."

She sighed and shook her head; her shoulders slumping. "I'm not even going to bother telling you off… just, be careful, okay Harry?"

He smiled at her concern and nodded. "I will."

He hopped off her stomach and sat with his back against the headboard as May made herself comfortable. "And what's through there?"

"The mirror of Erised," he explained, "it's enchanted and shows the viewer their heart's deepest desire."

"What's yours?"

Harry looked over at her with a humoured smile. "I couldn't tell; I had my barriers up to full, so it didn't get a read on me."

She blushed and scratched at her cheek with a lopsided grin. "Sorry, personal question eh?" She was silent for a moment, and buried her face in her hands when her stomach let out a long, drawn out growl. Harry, contrarily, chuckled and called out to Nipsy.

"Ah, Master Uchiha sir!" said the elf with a snappish salute when she arrived, and he rubbed his eyes with a sigh.

"You've been watching war movies again, haven't you?" He got a sly grin in return and rolled his eyes as his lips twitched. "Would you be able to get my sister dinner? She hasn't eaten in three days and has been through a Sharingan transplant… so that should give you an idea of how much food to bring."

Nipsy immediately looked at May with wide, gleaming grey eyes. "Oooh, Mistress Pott-"

"She's an Uchiha now," Harry interrupted, and Nipsy sent him a sly grin. "And what's with the mistress?" Nipsy's grin only widened, and just when she was about to answer Harry got the gist of where she was going and interrupted with a, "Never mind that actually Nipsy, how's about that dinner then?" He scowled at the smug expression on his house-elf's face and gave a sigh of relief when she popped away.

"Was… was that a _house-elf_?"

Harry gave a chuckle and nodded as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, yeah… she's a little different from other ones you've likely seen, or in your case heard, and mostly because I found her as a baby and raised her free of the normal conceptions of house elves – hence why, in most households, she'd be considered a bad elf… and very, very boldly spoken."

May gave a giggle, and Harry couldn't help but smile at the sound. "I like her. She's fun."

As the elf herself popped in Harry smiled and mumbled, "Aye, that she is," under his breath, and watched as Nipsy arranged the tray and plates on May's lap before perching herself on a seat made of thin air and beginning to feed her.

"Did she do this for you too?" May asked between mouthfuls, and Harry smiled as he shook his head.

"No, I met Nipsy when I was seven years old – but ever since then she's taken good care of me. I doubt I would've made it through a few hard times without her."

Nipsy rolled her eyes. "Ah yes, Master Uchiha was a very silly boy; always going out and training too hard, and coming back injured. One time I even had to pop to St Mungos and steal some Draught of the Living Death." Harry laughed nervously at the glare he got from the young house-elf and the gobsmacked expression from his sister. Nipsy was nowhere near done, and Harry doubted she'd ever let him live it down. "Master Uchiha decided that fighting a Hell Demon in an area of temporal distortion alone would be a good idea, without his wand. He got bitten and had his right arm torn off, so I had to keep him in stasis for an entire month as I drained the poison from his system and reattached his arm."

Harry interrupted his sister before she could start laying into him. "Looking back it was an incredibly stupid thing to do, and these days I'm trained enough to face one."

"A Hell Demon in a temp- whatever it was? I've heard Lily talking about things like that, and Demons can only appear there, and they're at their strongest!"

"Well I know that now, don't I?" Harry shot back, a hint of irritation in his voice, "And I've learned my lesson! I've trained to beat them now, along with all other manner of Dark Creatures!"

"Like that time you fought Count Vlad in Romania and got yourself impaled on a wooden spike?" Nipsy shot back, and Harry slapped a hand to his forehead before sighing.

"Okay, okay, fine, that's enough. I've made plenty of mistakes in my short life, but I'm still alive, and now I know how to defeat the worst of the worst. I'm safer than I ever have been."

"V-Vlad?"

Harry looked at May who had completely forgotten about eating, and sighed again when he saw her gaping jaw. He sat back and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, Count Vlad… as in Count Dracula. I was in Romania training with Dragons at the time, and I decided that it was as good a place as any to get my skills sharp against the undead. I went to the nearest Clan Land and made a bit of noise-"

"An explosion of blue flame," Nipsy interrupted, and Harry sent her a glare.

"Yes, thank you Nipsy, and before I knew it Vlad had come himself to investigate. I had the Sharingan and thought that I was king of the world, and I couldn't have been more wrong. I was six, and despite having the ability to see the movements of anything… well I couldn't react fast enough. He toyed with me for nearly an hour before ending the battle; stabbing a wooden steak through my chest as what I suppose he thought was a joke. He left me to die, but thankfully Nipsy got to me and took me to a hospital before that happened. He was nice enough to stick the steak through the _right_ side of my chest, and so I only suffered a punctured lung and some arterial damage. I was back on my feet within the week."

May just stared, figuratively, at him for several seconds before shaking her head sadly. "How can you be so nonchalant about that kind of thing? Such pain?"

He gave a bitter chuckle in reply. "My life's been comprised of pain ever since I can remember." He saw May's face twist with regret and making him explain, but he continued. "My new life started with my eyes being cut out, being sliced open, and then going through the agony of having a new pair implanted… and I was five. At six being impaled with a wooden stake wasn't that much of a step up – though I will admit that having my arm torn off at seven was a bit more than I was expecting. Since then I've been bitten by a Nudu, had my spine torn out of my body by a necromancer in Germany before being stabbed repeatedly with it, shot, and thrown out of a ten story building. Getting stabbed really doesn't compare anymore."

He'd realized that he may have taken it a step too far when he saw his sister's lip trembling, and moisture staining the bottoms of the bandages covering her eyes. "Why? Why didn't you just stay safe?" she all but whispered, and Harry leaned forwards with a small smile.

"Safe? It was never going to be safe for me. I'm the Lord of one of the Founding Four; I possess the Sharingan; I am the brother of the Girl-Who-Lived; and my position puts me in the responsibility of millions of lives that my ancestors swore to protect. What use am I if I can't even defend myself? I can't just hide in a hole and shroud myself with my wealth and position, because I'm an Uchiha. We don't cower; we fight for what's right. What I didn't say was that two months after Vlad defeated me, I defeated him. The weekly hunts of the nearby village stopped, and I saved hundreds of lives. The Hell Demon was present by a rift in a muggle playground, and devoured any children that passed its event horizon. I killed it after I'd recovered too, and saved children and adults who couldn't even see what was killing them. The necromancer in Germany was bringing the townspeople's' loved ones back to life and making them into cannibals to terrorize the village. I stopped husbands, wives, children, parents… I stopped them from having to kill their own loved ones all over again – or being eaten alive by the people they'd buried."

He leant forwards and rested his face in his hands. "We're Uchiha, May. We don't let the innocent suffer for fear for ourselves. In a way that's why I'm staying here, despite being under Dumbledore's watch night and day because of it; I need to know what he's planning, and by staying in his 'control' he'll limit the damage he does to things just in school and he won't go and piss off the goblins by trying to go for my vault or something equally as disastrous." Harry gave a sigh, and a slightly pained look crossed his face. "After you've recovered I'm not going to go easy on you. Once your mind protections are perfect, and Nipsy's trained you in etiquette… you're going to hate me for the full six months I'm training you."

"Six months?"

He nodded. "I can't have you untrained, and by extension unprotected. We'll be going into an ICW time chamber sometime in the next couple of months simply so that I can train you, and during that time I _will_ pit you against some of the most dangerous creatures on this planet. Vampires, Nudu, Giants, Demons… I can, and will get my hands on the most violent inmates I can, and the ICW will let me have them to train with."

May shivered at the cold tone in her brother's voice, as well as what he was telling her, but felt warmth engulf her hand a moment later. It took only a moment for her to recognize it as her brother's skin, but she fought down the blush. "It's going to half-kill me putting you through that, May, and if things get too dicey then I'll be there to help… but I need you to be strong for me."

She stared at him through the darkness that covered her eyes, and after a moment nodded – a small smile on her face. "I won't let you down… after all, I'm not a Potter any more, am I?"

He chuckled and shook his head as Nipsy begun feeding May again, "No, no you're not." The next five days were spend with May in bed with Nipsy tending to her bathing, food, and reading material for classwork, and Harry instructing her at night about more advanced techniques that weren't covered in Hogwarts, but which were needed for her to survive against the most difficult situations life would likely throw at her. Nine days after the transplant Harry arrived in his dorm with Justin and Ernie a few steps behind, and bade them an early goodnight before disappearing behind his bed curtains. May was listening to Nipsy read a third year Defence Against the Dark Arts text, but looked sharply up and smiled when she heard her brother's rustling.

"How was school?"

"Boring," he commented idly, "at least until I snuck some bleaching potion into Snape's goblet at dinner. I swear he nearly cried when his hair turned white."

May giggled musically, and Harry grinned as he leaned forwards. "Ready to get those bandages off?"

She virtually bounced out of the sheets and leant forwards on all fours looking as if she was about to hug him silly. "Really?"

He laughed and nodded as he waved his hand to dim the lights, "Really really. Just stay still and keep your eyes closed, okay?" She nodded and he carefully undressed the cloth, and before long he was looking at his sister's face without the covering he'd become adjusted to. Her hair was kinked where it had been pressed against her skull, and her skin was slightly intended where the bandages had laid, but both problems were fixed by a small bit of spell work from Nipsy. "Now you're probably cycling right now, which means that your Sharingan's on and off. I want you to slowly open your eyes when I say so, and if you see blue light trails floating around I want you to close your eyes straight away, okay?" When she nodded he smiled. "Okay, now slowly open them."

She did so, and almost immediately closed them again. "I saw the blue," she explained, and Harry nodded with a hum.

"Okay, so it's cycled on at the moment." He carefully ran her through how to toggle the Sharingan's state at will, and had her practice it a couple of times with her eyes closed before trying to open them with the Sharingan off.

He watched her new irises become slowly visible, and couldn't help but grin as he hid a small blush. When both of her eyes were fully open she looked around, and a grin slowly alit her face. "I can see again!"

"I should hope so," he laughed, a small amount of relief in his voice, "it would've been an awful waste if you couldn't."

She looked around and then hurriedly down at her body – giving a light gasp when she saw her arm and leg muscles looking far more toned and athletic than they had previously. A quick peak down her shirt showed that it wasn't just muscles had developed, and the sudden attention to her chest made both siblings blush and refuse to meet the other's eyes. "You didn't mention that," she grumbled, and he gave a nervous chuckle.

"Well I'm not a girl… and if anything did happen then I wouldn't have noticed it at five." Another awkward silence entered the small space, Nipsy's hopeful humming the only sound permeating it. "So… um, well I suppose you can head back to your own dorm now. Just let me get the doppelganger in here." Not waiting for an answer he closed his eyes, and half a minute later the curtains parted and an exact copy of May, minus the darker eyes, appeared looking completely blank. May stared at her copy with wonder, and Harry explained how the process was done as he carefully broke down the magic protecting it. "It's made up of a framework of magic; compacted so tightly that it has a material form. Of course it takes several warlocks nearly a day to create one, but it's indistinguishable from the original for as long as it exists. I took an imprint off you while you were asleep and integrated it into the doppelganger… and now I'm going to unravel its recent experiences and give them to you – the last week of its memories essentially."

As soon as he'd finished explaining she felt a pressure on her mental shields, and hesitantly let them down. A rush of experiences soared through her consciousness, and she found herself reliving the doppelganger's past week within mere seconds – and with a sudden jolt the magical construct dissolved as its very existence was reabsorbed into the invisible magical streams surrounding them. "That was… amazing."

He laughed and nodded. "So I've heard. Now, off to bed with you again; you've still got some recovery to do, and an early night will do you good – breakfast is at seven thirty tomorrow. I can come and wake you up if you'd like."

She raised an eyebrow. "I thought men couldn't get into the girls' dorms…"

All she received in return before being pushed out of his bed was a sly wink. True to his word, the following morning she was awoken by a tilt of movement on her bed, and her still-groggy mind tried to process everything that had happened. When it did she jolted upwards in bed, and found herself looking into the deep green orbs of her brother – which were wide open in shock. It was then she felt the warmth of skin against her lips, and a few seconds later her brain finally realized that with the relative positioning of their faces… it was his lips that were emitting that warmth.

She jolted backwards with a huge red blush on her face, and Harry wasn't much better; his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find some words – hell, any words to break the silence. "Soft…" was his breathy solution, and a second after he realized what he'd said he'd blushed beet red and lurched out of her bed curtains. Still sitting up in her bed May touched her lips with wide eyes. Several minutes later she exited the curtains fully dressed, and found Harry standing with his back to the doorframe still with a blush on his cheeks. Both of her roommates grumbled as they started stirring, and May leapt across the room before dragging Harry to the stairs. Unfortunately Harry was so shocked he forgot to place a layer of magic beneath his shoes to circumnavigate the countermeasures, and May gave a squeak while Harry was more in favour of a surprised grunt when they flattened and became a slide; promptly whisking the both of them down to the landing where May ended up lying on top of Harry – their lips once more connecting. Both stared at each other with wide eyes, but it was May who made the small move to suckle on his lip for a fraction of a second before rolling aside and standing; her head lowered as she blushed like mad and held her hand out to him. He stared up at her in shock, but then slowly smiled before taking her hand and allowing her to help him up. "I think I'm the one supposed to do that," he offered as they walked down the stairs, and she lowered her head even more.

"What? Help me up or… _kiss_ their older brother?"

"Well definitely the first one," he answered, finally gathering himself enough from the shock to get back his usual wit, "but definitely not the second. I mean, kissing my older _brother_? Ew." He heard a small giggle erupt from her lips, and wondered what she'd do about what he was about to say next. "Though kissing my by-several-seconds younger sister? I think I was supposed to do that first."

She jerked her hand away as if burned, and he looked at her in confusion. "I'm going to breakfast alone," she told him firmly, and walked away at a brisk pace. Harry stared at her disappearing back in complete and utter bewilderment.

"What… what the hell?"


	5. Chapter 5

It was magnificent. Looking almost like a chunk of amber the Philosopher's Stone seemed to radiate power; as if advertising the fact that it was one of the most sought after possessions in the world. Even when in the darkness it emitted a weak, ember-like pulsing of light. Harry Uchiha watched as small lines of flux flowed over the ceiling of his four poster bed, and then let the hand that held the precious stone drop to his side with a frown. He couldn't understand why on Earth something so precious was being held in a _school_ of all places – let alone with a blatant warning to not go to the Third Floor Corridor beyond which it was being hidden.

To teens it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

He thought back to the compulsion charms that Dumbledore had been sending to his sister's doppelganger and wondered what that had to do with it, and hummed thoughtfully as things started clicking into place. Before he could get too absorbed in his wonderings there was a pop by his side and he turned his head to see Nipsy looking back at him. "Hello Nipsy," he greeted as he placed the stone back in his unshrunken trunk at the bottom of his bed, "how goes the training with May?"

He hadn't talked to May in over four weeks – not for lack of trying however. Every time he succeeded in giving her the necessary privacy to talk to him she simply left without a word or backwards glance. The only looks he ever saw aimed in his direction were frowns. "Very well, Harry." Nipsy had forgone her 'Master Uchiha' joke most days as well, easily able to tell that he would likely react more sharply to being teased. "After reading your book on the Sharingan she has achieved an eidetic memory when activated, and so she has finished and memorized all the etiquette material. She can improvise in simulated situations, and respond like an Uchiha even under duress."

"And how is she really?"

Nipsy looked up at him and sighed. "She has asked me questions… though in confidence. You could order me to-"

He waved his hand before she could continue. "No, you know I wouldn't ask you to break trust unless it was life-threatening."

"It may not be life-threatening, Harry, but it is most certainly life-changing."

He gave her a small nod, indicating his thanks for revealing even that, and she nodded back before giving her recommendation. "She's learned all I can teach her. She needs you for mastery of the Sharingan and fighting."

Harry nodded. "Very well. Please go and tell Herr Athelstan that I will require the Chamber prepared for six months at a time dilation that equates to five hours. For tomorrow night."

Nipsy nodded and popped away, and Harry sighed before swinging his legs out of bed and tying a dressing gown around himself. He walked down the stairs and into the common room, and wasn't surprised to see that May was the only one up; reading by the fireplace. She turned her head towards the sound, and he saw her jaw clench – making him frown. He sat opposite, and she immediately moved to stand. "Hold on a minute." She looked over at him and then frowned, but stayed sitting. "Nipsy's been keeping me updated on your training and she tells me that you're done with the etiquette." He got a sharp nod and smiled. "Good, well that means that you're ready to learn about the Sharingan." She looked up, her eyes showing surprise for a moment before the frown made a reappearance, and Harry gave a sigh as she averted her eyes. "Look, I'm sick of this tip-toeing around; what the hell did I do?" She clenched her jaw but said nothing, and he leaned forwards exasperatedly. "May, if we're going to be spending the next _six_ months together training then it can't work like this. I'm going to need to know all about your mental state so I know where to push and where to leave off; I need to know your opinion on things; I need to have you talk to me, and that just isn't happening right now.

"When we're in the training chamber I'm responsible for not just your safety, but your sanity. I've seen several people try to train people with my training methods and five were insane by the end of it. The other two left the magical world and eventually committed suicide out of paranoia. I can't guess, May, I need to know _everything_, because if I don't then I run the risk of making the same mistake as those other teachers, and it wouldn't just lead to your death if you happened to go insane or die. Those eyes in your head, _your_ eyes, are the last Sharingan eyes I have to give." Her head snapped upwards, and this time her shocked eyes stayed locked on his. "All other eyes were destroyed by my ancestor, Itachi, so that only a worthy ancestor and his wife could produce offspring with them."

"A-a wife?"

She was understandably shocked, but Harry nodded. "That's what the ninth clause stated, and that's what Ragnok was worried about. It states that only the two new founders will have the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, through a curse put on the bloodline to prevent any recurrences of it, and that their children will merely possess the base Sharingan, and have the ultimate powers blocked to them." He looked at her seriously, "Of course the reason why the ninth clause is important is because the Sharingan gene is carried recessively, which essentially means that two Uchiha must mate to produce offspring carrying the Sharingan." She lifted a finger slowly to touch just below her eyelid and Harry nodded. "Yeah, we're the only two Uchiha alive."

"So you trapped me in this?" she yelled after a moment, and Harry quickly backpedalled; waving his hands disarmingly in front of him.

"I would never do that May. I said that the ninth clause was entirely my problem, and it is. You wanted out of the Potter family, and I accepted you into mine – as a full member, with all that entailed. You are in _no_ way obligated to marry me, have children with me, or even like me. It's my responsibility to carry on the Uchiha line, and I fully understood the risk of giving those last pair of eyes to you. I knew that there was, and still is a huge probability that you won't break past that taboo…" He trailed off, and then after a moment gaped at her. "That's what all this is about? You've been avoiding me because you feel ashamed that you like me?"

"Well what else was I supposed to do?" she yelled at him, "I've grown up my entire life being taught that close inter-family romances are something to be disgusted about! I've been taught that incest is wrong!"

"And what about first cousins?" Harry fired back, vaguely happy he'd placed silencing spells around the room before beginning to talk to her, "Inbreeding is encouraged in pureblood circles! First cousins are fine but brother and sister aren't? What's the difference, really? What are the actual problems? The laws provide me with absolute immunity, and by extension yourself; physical deformations with any offspring can be cured mere hours after conception; and so the only problem is what others think."

He flung his hand out in frustration, "What do you care what they think? You hate the way people are bigoted and judgemental about things they can't understand, and isn't that what the case is here? You didn't freak out when I held your hand when we went to Gringotts, well… not too much," he saw her lips give a small tweak upwards and felt his spirits boost. "Look, we kissed." He saw her fists clench but forged onwards, "Twice, technically. The first time was accidental, but damned if I didn't enjoy it May." He saw her fists clench even tighter, until the compressed skin was bleached white. "And the second time you actually _kissed_ me, and, excuse my language here, I nearly did a fucking jig." He sighed when he saw her jaw clenching. "Look, cards on the table right now – no lies, only the truth.

"I am highly attracted to you, May. I think you're the prettiest damn girl I've ever seen, I think you're funny and intelligent, and I think you'll make a great Uchiha and do the family name proud. I also think that if we can put aside the conventions that have been forced upon us we could be very happy together. I also know we're eleven years old, and that at this age _dating_ is usually considered too old for us… but I'm not asking to date you, yet. All I'm asking is that you try and put aside all that rubbish that you've been fed by the Potters and give us a chance. Just be yourself around me, and I'll be myself around you, and in the end it's up to you. If you think we can work, I'm all for it. If you don't, then I'll be gutted, but I'll cope and we can just go back to being an Uchiha brother and sister."

She still had her fists and jaw clenched, and Harry gave a nervous cough. After nearly a minute's agonizing silence however, she finally spoke, but it was clear she was struggling with herself. "I know it's wrong," she murmured; her hair hiding her face from view, "and I know people will think it's disgusting, and I know that it'll be hard. I also know that it's taboo for a reason… but I can't help it." Harry saw a drop of liquid hang from her chin and leaned forwards to wipe it off. The moment his skin touched hers she jerked upright and looked directly at him; baring her tear-filled, conflicted eyes into view, as well as her warring emotions venting themselves through her constantly changing expression. In front of his very eyes he saw the mask crumble, and a second later found himself being hugged almost crushingly tight. "I can't help it," she repeated with a sob into his shoulder, and he slowly wrapped his arms around her. It only made her cry harder. "And I don't care! I don't care that I shouldn't love you!"

His breath hitched in his throat, and he felt his eyes prickle with barely restrained tears. It had been years since he'd cried, and so far as he could remember the first time he'd ever done so without being in agonizing pain. "Hey," he cooed softly, "shhhhhh… I- I love you too, okay? Shhhhh…"

It took what seemed like hours before she stilled in his arms, but he noticed with unconcealed happiness that she didn't try and move away. "I think we can work," he heard her murmur as she turned her head aside on his shoulder, "but I don't want to be like all those people I hear about. I don't want to kiss yet, or do any of that kind of stuff… I don't want to rush it." He nodded and stroked her hair gently, and heard her hum deep in the back of her throat; almost like a purr. "This… I want this. I can do this… just hugging."

Harry shook his head and smiled softly before pecking the top of her head. "You voice my thoughts almost exactly," he murmured back, "and I'm content with this as well. Whatever happens, happens… so long as we're both ready. Just…" he trailed off after a moment, and her eyes widened when she felt his arms tighten around her. "Just… please don't hate me for what I'm going to put you through."

"Is it really that bad?"

He nodded after a moment. "Yeah, it's really that bad."

She nodded to herself after a moment before snuggling deeper into his arms and sighing. "Can we just stay like this for a while?"

Harry nodded and rearranged himself so he'd be more comfortable; eventually ending up in a position where he was all but lying down with May lying on his other side; sandwiched between his torso and the back of the chair. The next thing Harry knew however, Ernie was poking him insistently in the chest. He blearily looked up and saw his fellow first year looking somewhat confused, and after a couple of seconds thinking about why he was on the couch he understood why. "Not a word to anybody," Harry warned as he gently extracted himself from May's arms; her smile dropping when she felt him move away. Her slight clutching motions at where he'd been previously eventually made her stir, and Harry watched her eyes flicker open – before widening with worry when she saw Harry standing next to Ernie.

"I won't tell anybody," the dirty-haired blonde promised, and Harry stared him dead in the eye for several seconds before nodding – having permanently locked the memory in an impenetrable barrier.

Ernie quickly made his escape, and Harry sat down opposite his sister with a yawn and a grin. "Good morning," he greeted her warmly, and she smiled back.

"Morning… I guess I was just too comfortable."

Harry chuckled and gave a small nod to thin air when his nightclothes disappeared and his school uniform was suddenly covering his body. May gave a start when the same happened to her. "It's just Nipsy," Harry explained, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "We leave tonight, by the way," he warned her, and while she looked surprised for a moment she nodded.

"Will I need to bring anything?"

He shook his head. "You'll be training with some modified clothing, which you'll be fitted for before we enter the Chamber."

"So… six months?" He nodded and she frowned. "But won't that be obvious? I mean, I'll grow a lot in six months, as will you – especially if we're training. Won't everybody notice the difference?"

Harry shrugged, "Odder things have been known to happen in the magical world. A sudden growth spurt is almost par for the course."

"It's still a bit farfetched. And Lily and James'll notice."

Harry gave a snort. "Ah, I wouldn't be so sure about that. Christmas Holidays is in a week, and they haven't seen you for nine… so they'll adapt to your new image pretty sharpish." He sent her a roguish grin after a moment. "You know, I think you'd look cute with short hair." She blushed brightly, and tried to hide her small smile, but failed miserably. She stood up after a moment, and then held out her hand to him. "You know that's twice you've done what I'm supposed to do," Harry commented as he accepted the hand up, but both let their hands drop to their sides as they stepped out of the common room; it wouldn't do to be caught doing such a thing so early in the game.

"What can I say," she quipped back, "I'm more of a gentlewoman than you are a gentleman."

He clutched theatrically at his chest and winced. "Oh, cutting deep this morning."

She laughed brightly as they entered the hallway leading to the Great Hall, and several heads turned to see what the ruckus was. When they saw Harry Uchiha, the ousted brother of the Girl-Who-Lived walking and talking with the girl herself… well, whispers erupted with speculation. When they entered the Great Hall quite obviously together as friends Harry saw Dumbledore's eyes glint with a newfound plan. That glint quickly disappeared in favour of a frown however, when his mental probe was soundly rebuffed by May – who shot him a withering glare. Harry smirked deviously at the man as he sat down directly opposite May, and got a frustrated glare in return.

"Occlumency and magical shields right up from now on," he muttered lowly to his sister, "he's not a happy chappy." She nodded in the affirmative, and begun serving herself breakfast as Dumbledore prowled the edges of her mind for weaknesses that he could exploit. She playfully opened up a small path, and felt as he quickly darted through it before turning confused when he found a dead end. The path he'd taken into the fissure however, closed up behind him, and he quickly had to abandon his packet of magic before it was painfully sliced off forcefully. He glared at the young Potter, but May simply ignored him and smacked her lips; playing it off as if she was talking about the French toast she was eating. "Pissing him off is _probably_ not helping," Harry warned her, fighting down his immense amusement, but she caught it anyways and sent him a triumphant grin.

"Yeah, but it's not as if he can do anything about it. He's illegally trying to use legilimency on me, and Occlumency isn't a regulated art. I'm well within my rights to play around with intruders in my mind. And besides, if worst comes to worst then my magical barrier will protect me from obliviates and Veritaserum."

Harry had to give it to her; she'd memorized all that he'd written. "Still, keep it low-key. For the time being I'd rather not rock the boat."

"And when would you 'rather'?"

"Fourth year," he told her with a grin, "because the Triwizard Tournament is scheduled for that year. I wouldn't mind getting into it and show that a fifteen year old can out-strip seventeen and eighteen year old competitors. It'll make a bit of a bang as I really bring attention to the Uchiha family."

May rolled her eyes as she sipped on her Pumpkin juice, but just as he had with her playing with the Headmaster, she couldn't help but smile at his attitude – it was one of the things she loved about him. He could be deadly serious when need be, but was the most exciting and fun person she'd ever met overall. "Attention seeker," she muttered under her breath, and Harry rolled his eyes as he grinned.

"You know, your lips are really soft."

She spat out her mouthful of juice with force at the unexpected comment, and Zacharias Smith was unlucky victim that got drenched as May coughed and spluttered. Harry just sat back and enjoyed the show with a smirk, and his grin only widened when the feisty dark-redhead calmed herself and sent him a glare that, had looks been able to kill, would have buried him two hundred feet under. "Not funny," she growled, and Harry burst into laughter, wheezing out in-between breaths that he thought it was the funniest darn thing since Snape having white hair.

Dumbledore, seated at the head table, was not in the least bit happy. He'd been trying to find out a way to dissolve the ousting that the Potters had forced onto Harry, but had been turned aside at every turn by the laws that protected the founding four. His efforts to reverse the automatic emancipation of Harry Uchiha had likewise been rebuffed, and he had found himself getting increasingly frustrated at all the hurdles he had to jump through to even get information on the young man, let alone manipulate him. His sister, however, provided avenues of possibility – especially with the newfound friendship she was displaying towards her estranged brother.

Harry watched as the old man leaned across to say something to Pomona Sprout, and watched as the woman nodded and started towards them. "Incoming meeting arrangement," Harry discreetly warned her under his breath, and grinned when he saw May give a deep sigh.

"Miss Potter," came the expected call from the bubbly herbology teacher, "the Headmaster would like a word with you in his office after breakfast."

May nodded politely, but the moment the woman's back was turned she shot the attentive headmaster a burning glare that actually made him wince and jerk backwards. "Put the fear of the devil into him!" Harry cheered quietly, and May's serious countenance was instantly replaced by an undignified snort and a grin.

"Drama queen."

"Should I comment on that little moment where you suckled my li-"

"I'm going to the meeting early," she declared loudly as she stood up, and Harry sent her a pitiful smile.

"Aw, am I that bad?"

Her return glare was his answer. He waited for her in Transfiguration, and in Potions, but begun to get worried when she hadn't shown up by the time Defence Against the Dark Arts rolled around. He gave an almost visible sigh of relief when he saw her eating in the Great Hall at dinner, though raised an eyebrow when she greeted him warmly with a beaming smile. "Hey, you know I got to thinking today, and I think that Hermione Granger would be a good friend to have. What do you think?"

'_I think he's getting too fucking persistent with those compulsion charms,'_ he shot back just outside her magic wall, and a moment later heard her sigh back – all within her mind of course. Outside of their private conversation their magic had been tasked with continuing on a conversation that agreed with the compulsion charms that Dumbledore had been getting rather wand-happy with as of late.

'_I counted thirty seven'_ she told him as she walked along next to the glowing blue wall of magic protecting her mind, and Harry poked it every so often when he thought he'd found weakness.

'_That's a lot of spells to cast on an eleven year old,'_ he fired back, '_it's illegal for a reason. That kind of compulsion at such a young age could cause all kinds of chaos in the victim's psyche.'_

'_He's determined to have you on his side, or back with the Potters at least. He wants me to convince you to come back, and thereby forfeit your titles to James as the Head of House. He also wants me to convince you that reversing your emancipation is a good idea, as well as having Hermione and Ronald as friends.'_

'_Why them?'_

'_Well from what I've seen, probably because I wasn't busy studying for the first few weeks of class, Hermione has an infallible image of authority. If Dumbledore told her to run and jump off a cliff while saying abracadabra, she'd most likely do it. I'd say he wants her as a spy.'_

'_Well that fits with what I thought,'_ Harry mused, _'especially after I saved her and she tried to dob me in. But who I don't get is Ronald… what's his game?'_

'_The Weasleys are Dumbledore-mad,'_ May explained as her outside-self rambled on about how knowledgeable and helpful Hermione would be, _'and the Potters have known them for years. He'd do anything Dumbledore said as well, and he's intensely jealous. With your wealth, well-advertised in the Prophet I must add, political power, and top-of-the-class grades… well he'd do anything to see you fall. If Dumbledore had a plan to get that power taken away from you, especially if a share of the wealth was up for grabs, Ronald would be all for it.'_

Now her mouth was blabbing about Ronald, and how he had been such a nice boy ever since she first met him when she was seven. '_Right… and is that all?_'

'_Well he obliviated my memories of what Lily and James said to me about you when they abandoned you and replaced them with something nice. I'm supposed to support you, to keep being your friend, but I still love them.'_

'_Your shields are intact though?'_

She gave a mental laugh, and her lips twitched slightly as she boasted about Ron's chess prowess. '_My Occlumency barriers cancelled most of the brunt, and my magical wall just made the spells fizzle out of existence. He did administer Veritaserum at one point to confirm that I was telling the truth about everything, and that was a bit more of a workout, but apart from that no problems.'_

'_Good to hear_,' he smiled as he exited her mindscape. The rest of their conversation was more about the schoolwork side of things, though May did make an effort to include Ron or Hermione in every third or so sentence simply to appease Dumbledore's listening charms that Harry identified with his Sharingan.

The moment they were free of the dinner table and out of Dumbledore's eagle-like eyes May dropped the act, and Harry was more than pleased with the fact that he didn't have to listen to those two names again. He didn't hate either of the two, but he did find them frustrating and annoying; Hermione for her hero-worship of authority figures, and Ronald for his animalistic manners and one-track mind – as he'd learned when the boy had tried to strike up a conversation. The only topic available was apparently quidditch.

"Get a few hours rest," he told her once they were safely in the common room, "it'll be several hours before we can actually get some shut-eye once we arrive at the ICW headquarters in Thailand." She nodded her understanding and bade him a genuine-sounding, "See you tomorrow," before heading up the stairs, and Harry smiled before making his own way up and getting out the appropriate clothes. Nipsy popped in to help with a couple of elf-enchantments that Harry's magic couldn't replicate, but then popped away with a "Goodnight Master Uchiha, and I'll see you in six months!" Harry had smirked at that, but had drifted off to sleep pretty quickly; his worrying about May having hit him harder than he thought. He awoke to his wand emitting a pleasant chiming sound and got dressed only half-awake. He got his bearings when he stubbed his toe on the bedpost, and counted himself very lucky that he'd manage to put his shirt on the right way.

He wondered if what he was thinking of doing was a good idea, and eventually thought that in the long run it probably was… possibly in the short run too, if things went well. He clipped his trunk around his neck before descending the stairs, and then carefully levitated himself up the stairs to the girls' dorms; erecting a nullifying field around himself to get around the gender-sensitive wards. He relaxed his magic when he touched down on the top of the landing, but kept his magic fluctuating enough to distort his magical signature so that the wards wouldn't trigger – just in case. He entered May's dorm silently; regulating a small undercurrent of magic underneath the soles of his feet to make sure no creaks gave him away, and carefully drew aside her bed curtains. He really couldn't help but stare.

May looked adorable. Her arms were around one of her pillows; hugging it tightly to her chest, while her face was completely relaxed, but twitched every so often as she mumbled under her breath. He leaned forwards and brushed the hair out of her face so that he could get a clearer look, and actually blushed when he saw her face completely unobscured. He watched her nose crinkle cutely before she relaxed and snuggled closer to her pillow, and gently shook her after erecting some privacy wards around the bed. "May, time to wake up." She stirred a little more strongly, and he leaned closer as he shook her. "Time to get up and head to Thailand."

Her eyes flickered open, awareness quickly growing in the forest-green that gazed unfocussed back at him, and he leaned down before pecking her sweetly on the mouth; lingering a moment longer than strictly necessary to nip at her bottom lips with both his own. She was wide awake immediately, and stared up at him with wide eyes. "Y-you just kissed me!"

"I did," he affirmed softly and with a gentle smile, "and it was perfect. Now it's time to get up and ready for the… well, night."

She gave a small giggle, and surreptitiously felt her lips. She knew that she wasn't fooling anybody however, and her pleased smile told her just how much she had liked the gesture. "Should I wear anything specific?"

"As much as I'd love to see you prancing around in your pyjamas," he quipped, eliciting a scoff and a blush from his sister, "I don't believe it would be appropriate. A good robe, perhaps without the Hogwarts logo if you have one, and some smart pants and shirt underneath. Your school shoes will be fine."

She nodded and he left the room to give her some privacy. Under four minutes later she emerged looking excited and very well dressed, and Harry smiled before holding out his hand. She took it eagerly, and Harry was surprised when she was the one that intertwined their fingers. "I'm happy with hugs," she explained as he helped her over the doorsill of the portrait, "and small pecks like that one you gave me… and holding hands is sort of like an embrace. I'm fine if it's just us."

"Fair enough," he reasoned with a smile.

"I liked that kiss," she murmured a moment later, and he grinned down at her before squeezing her hand slightly.

"I did too." The pair quickly made their way to the hidden passage, though this time May was actually paying attention and looked at him surprised.

"How do you know all this?"

"James' map," he replied simply. "Him, Sirius, and Remus made something called the Marauder's Map; an artefact that allows them to see the locations of every single person within Hogwarts. It also shows every hidden passage. I saw it once when I was left at the house alone, and managed to study it for an hour before James arrived back and threw me in my room without food for a week."

He felt a rush of happiness when he saw the anger flood across her face, as well as the sudden increase of pressure on his hand. She was being protective of him, and not many people in his life had offered to do such a thing unconditionally. The moment they cleared the wards May hugged herself to him, and Harry was too distracted by the sudden closeness and comforting warmth that he forgot to apparate until May reminded him sounding very pleased with herself from his chest. The journey to Thailand was a bit more akin to the apparition May had experienced with her 'parents' before; the feeling of being squished through a tight tube. She came out the other side gasping, and clutching tightly onto Harry's chest. "What the hell was that?"

He grinned down at her and gently pried her arms from around him before intertwining their fingers once more and beginning to walk down the long, marble corridor they suddenly found themselves in. "Apparation is limited to less than five hundred kilometres," he explained, "and we are currently in Thailand… which is just over twelve thousand kilometres from Hogwarts."

She gaped at the monumental figure, "Well then how did we get here?"

"A restricted, by the British Government at least, method of transportation nicknamed 'surfing'. By using residual magic trails we literally surf the magic currents to our destination. Of course, despite the fact that we use the trails' magic for the work, it still takes a lot of power to do it – and most of that is used to prevent the surfer from getting crushed by the incredible pressures."

She stared at a couple of businessmen walking past speaking in a language she couldn't understand, and gaped at Harry when he was greeted by the two, and proceeded to smile and talk to them fluently in whatever language they were speaking. He waved them off before continuing on, and smiled at his sisters' exasperation. "I speak ten languages; Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Malay, and Hindi. Those men were diplomats from the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, and I've been helping them lobby for some important changes in their country."

"How can you speak all those languages though? You're only eleven!"

"Yeah," he agreed as they passed more people, Harry occasionally waving to those that greeted him, "but I trained for a year in a time chamber. That and I also received a memory implant left to me by Itachi Uchiha – who was over one thousand years old when he died." She boggled again, and he grinned at her. "You'll learn what I learned from Itachi, but don't think that just because you 'know' it that you can do it. They're two completely different things."

"But why don't teachers use that method? That way we could be done with school in less than a year!"

"Because it's restricted," he told her, "internationally. The ICW turns a blind eye to me and a few other people doing it, but only because we're held in such high regard. That and we're restricted to a one-time pass, which I'll be using on you."

"First the eyes, and now this? You're optimistic that I'll marry you, aren't you!" she joked, though was completely unprepared for Harry to turn to face her, grin, and reply with: "Yes, May, I am."

She was speechless for the next minute.

Finally they came to a huge, and intricately designed dome-like room, and May just took a figurative step back and shook her head with a silently proud expression as several very important-looking figures came and greeted her brother by name. She watched as he greeted them back, also by name if the laughter and civility was anything to go by, and was subtly awed as he switched between languages with seamless transitions; listening and talking to several foreign diplomats at the same time. She finally picked up the word 'English', and immediately found herself being introduced to the small crowd of men and women. When asked just who she was Harry introduced her as his sister, and, "Possibly-future girlfriend", and May was shocked when everybody gathered just laughed and shook their heads while commenting on how he never did anything normally.

The next three hours was a whirlwind of activity for May; Harry providing the necessary translations for those that couldn't speak English, and the correct credentials when accessing restricted areas – which seemed to be frequently if the number of armoured and dangerous-looking guards was anything to go by. The other thing she realized was that her brother was far more mysterious than she had originally realized. She'd seen her brother tense when he was addressed as "Assassin Uchiha", and watched as he'd rattled off a long sentence to the Japanese man who had greeted him as such. From that point on she'd looked at Harry in a completely different light, and as they approached a huge set of gates guarded by what seemed like an entire battalion of military personnel she couldn't help but voice her questions. "Why did that man call you Assassin Uchiha?"

He gave a humourless chuckle and shook his head before looking at her. "I guess I was too optimistic that you'd missed that, wasn't I?" Despite it being an obviously rhetoric question she nodded, and he sighed. "I've killed a few people on contracts before," he revealed lightly, as if it wasn't a big deal, and she gaped at him. He caught the look and shook his head. "Don't give me that. I killed them because they needed to be killed, and I saved lives while I did it. The people who I assassinated were unchangeable; completely set on their goals. Three of my targets were Dark Lords with much the same goals as Voldemort had; five were mass murderers that worked for evil organizations; and the rest were all escapees from high-security prisons. I interrogated each and every single one under Veritaserum and probed their minds for obliviates and memory blocks before carrying out each contract, and I disregarded several because I found evidence that my target was innocent. Two of those people are currently in the ICW because of my efforts."

She was still appalled, though for reasons Harry hadn't anticipated. He had an idea when he saw tears in her eyes, and had to stop moving or risk falling over when she hugged him tightly mere meters from the checkpoint. Several of the aurors guarding the doorway sent him shocked looks, but he ignored them in favour of his sister who was sobbing into his robes. "I'm so sorry I didn't do anything," she cried, "you've had to… you've had to _kill_ people! You've had to do things, and experience things that you shouldn't have had to! I'm so sorry!"

He wrapped his arms around her carefully and with almost tenacious care, and gently ran his hands through her rich crimson hair. "It's not your fault," he murmured to her, wandlessly erecting privacy wards despite the normal rules which prohibited such magic in their current position within the Taiwanese Ministry. "I'm a better person for what I've done," he reassured her, "and although I've had to forfeit my childhood… I don't think I'd have had the maturity to rationalize my attraction to you without the development I gained having gone through the hardships I have. And for that, May, I think it's worth it. I just hope we really do work."

He was so shocked at her next action that his privacy wards dropped like a tonne of bricks, but completely ignored the cat-calls and wild whistling from the guards when his sister leaned upwards and crashed her lips into his. He honestly couldn't have cared if Dumbledore saw them at that moment it was so wonderful. There was nothing sexual about the kiss, but it was as if everything he'd ever wanted was right where he was. Her lips were so soft, and when he felt her tentatively move them against his he returned the action in kind; wanting to show her that he felt the same way even though they were planning on taking it slow. It wasn't taking it too fast, it wasn't sexual, but it was passionate; filled with unspoken promises and bonds that were strengthening with each passing minute they spent together; filled with hope for the future.

Finally they broke apart, nearly thirty seconds after having first touched lips and Harry looked down at May with a brilliant smile that was matched in intensity and happiness on her own face. He was about to tell her that he loved her for the second time that day when their happy moment was interrupted by a yelled, "WOOOOOOOO HARRY! WHO'S THE BABE?"

He sighed against her lips and reluctantly removed his forehead from hers; looking at the black-haired American that had yelled out to him. "She's my sister, Bill, now shut the fuck up and let us through." May had never before seen a man pale so fast, nor security protocols be so blatantly ignored. They were through the checkpoint in mere seconds, and with the tingle of powerful magic and huge guard presence she was sure it was meant to take far, far more than just being waved through.

For normal people at least, but then again Harry was proving to be about as far from normal as one could get.

"How do you know all these people?" she whispered as they walked down a long, obsidian corridor, and Harry grinned down at her.

"After I mastered the Sharingan people started taking notice. Most of the guards I've worked with on various operations, the council members I've helped many-a-time by predicting their opponents' movements in a political setting, and the head of the ICW, Herr Athelstan, well I saved his and his family's life when a Dark Lord captured his home village. In return I asked for my identity and exploits to be classified as A-Level intelligence, and as Dumbledore and every single person in the British Government is at the highest C-Level… well I'm pretty well known outside of Britain, just not within. I'm well known because I am an Uchiha, and not in any way because of the name, but because of how I act." He smiled down at her and added, "Just as you will become well known."

"It's quite a legacy I have to live up to," she shot back, and he grinned but stayed silent as they approached two men waiting at the end of the long hallway; standing just outside a set of huge wrought iron doors inlaid with beautiful swirling designs.

"The one on the left is the head of the ICW," Harry warned her in a whisper as they approached, and she gave a subtle nod to indicate her understanding. When they reached the pair they bowed at the waist, and when Harry straightened up he sent the brown haired man a warm smile. "Herr Athelstan, may I introduce my sister May Uchiha, May, this is Herr Athelstan; the ICW chairman."

The man in question leaned forwards with a small smile and kissed May's hand. "A pleasure," he smiled before turning to his blonde-haired acquaintance. "And now for my introductions. Monsieur Devereaux, this young man here is Harry Uchiha, a very good friend of mine, and his sister May Uchiha. May, Harry, Monsieur Devereaux."

Harry shook the man's hand firmly while May had her knuckles kissed once more, and Harry smiled. "I assume that you are Michael's apprentice he spoke so highly of?"

"Oui," the man smiled, "and I have heard much about you also. I assume you wish to speak this conversation in English?"

Harry nodded in the affirmative and nodded before taking his sister's hand and intertwining their fingers. "Please; my sister is not yet multi-lingual as I am."

Harry turned his head towards a deep sigh, and stifled a grin when he saw the Head of the ICW looking rather drawn and expectantly defeated. "I get the feeling, Harry, that sometime in the next few years you'll be calling in a swathe of favours to get some marriage laws bent won't you?"

May blushed, but Harry just sent the man a sly smile. "I won't confirm or deny, Henry, but it always pays to be prepared, doesn't it?"

"Which is your subtle way of saying: begin putting your feelers out to all my supporters, no?"

"Why Henry! Are you accusing me of using my exploits in this internationally recognized and ruling organization to bend rules?"

"Of course not, Harry," the man returned dryly, "I would never suspect you of any such thing."

"Wonderful then," Harry smiled brightly, "shall we get on with things?"

The blonde man nodded before pulling out a measuring tape, and May was treated to an almost identical rendition of what it was like to be measured up in Ollivander's shop, though she had the impression that this time every single dimension actually mattered for something. She watched with interest as the man pulled out a sheet of black fabric that seemed to suck in all light, and then wave his wand in a complex series of motions. It bundled up before being cut in swathes, and then stitched together to become a pair of tights and a long-sleeved top. Another swish of the man's wand and all seams disappeared, and she stared at the floating garment with a confused expression.

"Harry, if you would. It seems that Monsieur Devereaux has a penchant for gloating over his work much like his master."

Harry looked at the French man and shook his head with a smile when he saw the gleam of triumph and glory sparkling wildly in his eyes. "Yes, it would seem so." He turned to May and pointed towards the leggings. "The material used for this is classified as Class-A intelligence. It's used only by ICW strike squads; essentially the elite of the elite. It weights next to nothing, and yet has the physical strength of Kraken-hide." May gawped at the flimsy-looking garment and leaned to touch it, marvelling at the thinness and silky texture. "It's magically resistant to most spells, and is also heat-regulating as well as being magically conductive to its user, and only its user." He plucked it out of thin air and handed it to her with a small smile. "You should get changed into it now so that we can run you through how to use it before we head into the Time Chamber."

She found herself a private spot in-behind a statue to change, and two minutes later reappeared looking very nervous as the black material clung elastically to her. Harry's jaw dropped at the spectacle, while the Head of the ICW and the clothes smith looked away uncomfortably. "May," Harry managed to croak out, "as much as I like what I see, the suit is meant as an undergarment."

She blushed right down to the roots of her hair before ducking with a squeak back behind the statue, and Harry had to force the lump out of his throat. "I'm sure that what we just saw was illegal in some countries," Henry forced out, "or at the very least frowned heavily upon. While I'm sure you enjoyed yourself Harry, we are but old men."

"It fits her well," commented Devereaux in a tone of voice a couple of octaves above usual, "but I agree – zat would at the very least get you slapped in my country."

Harry snapped a glare at the two men, and both laughed nervously while surreptitiously taking a step back. May made an appearance a minute later still blushing, and Harry none-too-subtly took her hand once more with a slight glare to the two older men. He knew that they wouldn't steal her from him, but couldn't help but feel possessive. May blushed harder at her brother's actions, but couldn't hide her pleased smile. Harry quickly ran through the specifics of how to control the suit, such as colour and heat, and after that Henry stepped forward and placed his hands against the huge doors. Nobody could clearly make out the hurried murmuring of whatever unlocked the chamber, but the loud click that echoed out in the resonant hallway a moment later made all of them jolt.

The doors swung open to reveal a huge space; a simulated clearing in a forest, and Harry stepped forwards across the threshold before quickly establishing himself as the trainer to the room with a muttered incantation – followed by a confirmation chant from the brown-haired ICW head. May watched with amazement as the room suddenly changed into a huge cave, then a flowering meadow, and finally a dungeon before reverting back to the base forest clearing.

Harry turned to the two men behind them and smiled before shaking Monsieur Devereaux's hand. "You're an honour to your profession, and I hope we can work together in the future." The man nodded with a broad grin before leaving, and Harry turned the man who had the ultimate say in what went. "I'm using my get-out-of-jail-free card."

Instantly Henry's countenance turned serious, and he stared at Harry calculatingly. "You know I have to ask why."

Harry nodded. "I know. I've never had a family, Henry, until I met May at the beginning of this year. When I adopted her into the Uchiha House I made that official, and I want my only living family to be well protected. There is, of course, the possibility that some time in the future she may be more than just a member of my house, but my wife… and there's no way in hell I'm letting somebody I love, the _only_ person I love, to get hurt because I didn't do all I could."

"As noble as I thought," Athelstan murmured after several seconds, and a smile spread over his face as he nodded. "I had no doubt that you would say such a thing, but protocol demands that I ask. I hereby formally recognize that the one-time privilege to use a memory transfer by Harry Uchiha has been fulfilled."

Harry nodded his assent, and a small flash connected the pair before fading into obscurity. "Six months then?"

Harry looked across at May who was poking a nearby flower with a look of awe on her face, and then back to the man for a moment before frowning. "Give me a moment?" Without waiting for an answer Harry walked over to his sister and crouched down next to her.

"This place is amazing," she gushed, and he smiled.

"I know, and you'll have plenty of time to experience all it has to offer later. Now I know I said that we would be training for six months, but there's another option that would take more time." Her questioning look prompted him to answer. "We could train in here for the equivalent of one year, however the changes would be more noticeable when we leave. The Chamber tells me that you're entering puberty," cue the blush, "as am I. This means that the changes will be all the more serious. It will seem like overnight, and I really do hate to bring this up, your breasts are going to jump several sizes," an even deeper blush, and Harry joined in this time. "That, and we're both going to be taller, stronger, and far more… developed than our peers.

"Now while it'll be harder to explain, it will have the added benefit of being able to perfect all the skills I plan on teaching you, rather than just being adequate." He took in a deep breath for the next part, and saw May tense in preparation. "And then there's the fact that we're going to be hormonal, in close proximity, and the only members of the opposite sex we see… which could lead to _not_ going slowly."

"Oh… right." May looked down at her feet for moment before giving her answer, taking in a deep breath to gather herself before speaking. "I-I think we should train for a year." Harry looked at her, surprised, and she explained. "From what you've said, use of this Chamber is limited… so we might not get this opportunity to train again. And if things go faster than we thought… well what happens, happens, right?"

"Right…" Harry mumbled to himself, and then gave a nod before standing up and walking back to the waiting Chairman. "We're going the full year," he informed him, and Henry nodded in understanding.

"Very well, and it was five hours dilation, right? That should get you back at Hogwarts by six o'clock local time; more than enough leeway to get yourselves sorted for the day. Just make sure you have an explanation for the sudden growth spurt, and I would recommend that you don't do this again Harry; you've already had a year in there before, and two years is the cut-off for when negative symptoms start appearing because of the temporal magic we invoke."

Harry nodded his understanding and agreement. "This'll be the last time Henry; I'm not going to risk going mad."

"Good… now I'll see you in five hours."

Harry shook the offered hand with a smile. "Thanks again for this Henry, I really appreciate it."

As the doors closed behind the two preteens the Chairman smiled and shook his head. "Not a problem Harry. Be safe."

Harry waved as the crack between the two slabs of wood lessened, and let out a sigh when they came together with a deep thrum. Numbers appeared above the doors; ticking slowly down, and Harry turned around to look at the training ground and his sister with a deep sigh and a small smile. "Show time."


	6. Chapter 6

Henry Athelstan paced nervously outside the time chamber and looked across at his wife who had conjured herself a chair to sit in. She'd wanted to see Harry again when he came out of Time Dilation, and seemed far more calm about the entire event than her husband. The reason for Henry's distress was that two hours after the Uchihas had entered the Chamber the research division had detected a massive fluctuation of magic from within; powerful enough to actually escape the event horizon of the temporal field dilating time.

Which meant that what was awaiting them inside was completely uncertain.

The numbers above the door ticked down; one minute ten, one minute nine, one minute eight… "Gah! Why is it so slow?"

"It is normal, Henry," Isabella shot back as she flicked the page in her magazine, "you are just nervous. It will be fine, you will see; it is Harry we are talking about here – you know, the one that defeated a _necromancer_ at nine years old."

He continued pacing and looked up at the clock. _Fifty five seconds…_ "I know, I know… but that fluctuation was huge. We had power surges near the end of his last session in there, but only at around half that power. It took two months to fully repair the damage, and the Chamber's self-repair speed is phenomenal."

The blonde-haired woman flicked the page again and crossed her left leg over her right. "Yes, Henry, but Harry will be safe. You said that he is in there with his sister, and if he has sacrificed time in the Chamber, as well as the privilege of a one-time use of the memory transfer magics… he will not allow harm to come to her - doubly so if what you say about their relationship is true.

_Twenty two seconds…_

Henry sighed and nodded. "You're right, of course… but we'll see in a few seconds anyways. I can only hope that they are safe."

Isabella stood up, vanishing her chair and tucking the magazine into her robe. She walked over to her husband and squeezed his shoulder before holding his hand. "It will be fine, you will see."

The moment the counter reached zero the doors clicked and swung slowly open, and the brown-haired ICW chairman found himself holding his breath. Green foliage came into view; obscuring any sight beyond a meter into the Chamber, and both Henry and Isabella squinted slightly as if doing so would allow them to see through the mass of green. Both dove out the way when a black blur came barrelling out of the room, and watched as they landed on the wall; crouched to absorb the impact before dropping to the ground and looking around. "Harry?"

The young man looked at Henry with surprise, and then down at his foliage-covered improvised ghillie suit with a small chuckle; his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning slowly. "Ah… so time's up then?" Before he could get an answer he became almost a blur and behind him on the wall several splatters of paint appeared. Husband and wife turned to look at the forest when a rustling noise reached their ears, and both their eyes widened when they saw a young woman step out of the thick brush holding what resembled a muggle rifle. She stared at Harry for a moment before groaning as she looked around, and the young man sent her a grin before walking over and squeezing her shoulder. "It's kinda impossible to hit each other now," he assured her, "so lighten up."

She threw the gun behind her back into the foliage, and turned to the wide-eyed adults with a smile as she started wandlessly banishing the bits of camouflage she had attached to herself. Finally she was revealed as wearing a pair of jeans and a light-green tank-top, and Henry couldn't help but notice how she'd grown. No longer was she the willowy preteen she had been five hours previously; her body was clearly exhibiting the curves becoming of a woman, and the swell of her breasts was very noticeable as well as the rather fantastic tan she was sporting. Her short hair simply completed the changes that had taken place.

The change in Harry was just as noticeable. He'd shot up several centimetres, and had filled out a fair amount. Whereas before his body simply couldn't justify keeping muscle on his frame, puberty had definitely changed that fact. His body was lean like a sprinter's, but the muscles that were uncovered as the foliage fell off of him screamed hidden power. Like his sister he'd cut his hair shorter, but whereas May's hair came down just past her ears, Harry's was cut closer to the scalp and was spiked stylishly to keep his fringe out of his face. Likewise he was sporting a rather enviable tan, and he grinned widely to match his sister's expression as his eyes faded to green once more. "Man it's weird being back." He looked to Isabella and leaned forwards to kiss her hand with a roguish smile. "Still as beautiful as ever Bella."

"Stop flattering," she shot back, and Harry grinned before stepping back and wrapping an arm around May's waist. Isabella gave a smirk before turning to his husband, and the man himself held up his hand haltingly.

"I know, I know, you told me so."

"You guessed that we'd get together?"

"It wasn't hard to predict," Henry told May with a humoured smile. "You looked right at home by his side when I last saw you, and Harry's protectiveness went a hint above what a brother would normally display… so it doesn't surprise me that you decided to get together. Do you plan on dating?"

Harry shook his head at the same time as May, though the latter replied to the question as her partner dropped his arm and walked back into the Chamber to revert it to its base form. "No, we don't plan on dating really. We've spent a year together and know each other almost as well as ourselves. Dating is where two people do different things to discover whether they're compatible or not… and we both know we are. We love each other in a romantically platonic way… if that makes sense, but we've gone as far as we want to go at the moment. It'll be a few years before we go any further, let alone actually come out as lovers."

Isabella looked as though she had just seen the cutest thing in her entire life. "Awww! That's so sweet!"

Harry walked out of the cleaned room with a roll of his eyes and grinned at the gushing woman as he wrapped his arm firmly around May's waist once more, and received an excited squeak from the normally-dignified woman. "Thank you Isabella."

"And how did the training go?" Henry asked, and Harry looked down at May before getting a nod in return.

The Chairman looked at Harry, confused, and Harry stared back before sitting down… on thin air, and pulling May into his lap where she seemed quite content to be. "May needs some more real-life experience, but the prisoners you had readied for me gave her the edge she needed. I'd put her at just below me in regards magical power, and on-par when it comes to physical conditioning." He shuffled a bit to get more comfortable and grinned at the shocked man and woman. "I do seem to hold more power in regards the magical side of things, as well as within my Sharingan, but it is negligible. The only reason I can still beat her is because I've been using the fighting styles I transferred for years longer than May has."

"So… now we have two, technically, eleven year old magicals who are within… what? Sorcerer classification? Warlock?"

"Grand Sorcerer," Harry revealed after a few seconds stagnant with anticipation, and both Henry and Isabella gaped. "So on par with Dumbledore… magically. Knowledge-wise we have at least ten times what he has thanks to memory transfers, and with the Sharingan… well that adds a completely new dimension to things. He would be a hard opponent to face, but if worst came to worst then I am fully confident that either of us could beat him."

"It… it's very tempting to create a new class for you alone… but knowing you you want to keep all of this very secret."

Harry nodded sharply. "Dark Lords alone would kill for the chance to get their hands on our eyes, as would many governments' 'research' departments – as you and I have discovered through unfortunate personal experience."

May didn't seem to be surprised about where the conversation was going, and Henry reasoned that Harry had shared everything with her. "I think I can pretend this never happened," he smiled, "but enough dilly-dallying; it's six fifteen in England at the moment, and you two need to get back into the castle before there's too much traffic." Harry nodded his thanks, as did May, and with one last round of goodbyes, as well as a group hug with the still 'aww'ing' older woman, the two made their way quickly through the Ministry. Harry was once more greeted by several people on the way, as well as some stares from people that had seen him and his sister five hours previously, but everybody was respectful enough to leave their words short since the two were so obviously in a hurry.

Harry hugged his arms firmly but comfortingly around May when they cleared the anti-apparation wards, and smiled when he felt her pull them into the magic stream. Within seconds they arrived at their destination, and Harry unfolded his arms from around her before grinning. "Nice work," he complimented, "that's damn good for your first International Surf… better than mine was I'd hazard."

She grinned at the praise, and gave him a sweet peck on his lips for his efforts. They strode quickly up the passage before ducking out from in-behind the tapestry that covered the entrance, and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw nobody in the corridor they had just slipped into. Their entrance into the Hufflepuff common room earned them some stares, and Harry gave a grin as he forced himself to not wrap his arm possessively around his sister's waist. It was odd not being able to show his affection at will anymore, but he took comfort in the way his sister's body swayed towards his before snapping away as she consciously stopped herself from doing the same.

"What the bloody hell happened to you two?"

Harry turned his head upwards to see Justin gawping down at them, and those that hadn't been paying attention before most certainly were now. Harry almost growled when he saw several third years staring at his sister appreciatively, but forced himself to stop when May stealthily grasped his hand for a moment. "Makeover time," he replied calmly as he walked up the stairs; May only a few steps behind. "I had a potion or two for a nice tan, another to speed up growth a little without affecting lifespan simply to get over the growth pains quickly, and then we decided why the hell not cut our hair too? I'm sure all of you know just how much I hate the elder Potters," some people shifted uncomfortably as he pointed out the elephant in the room, "and what better way to piss them off than by helping May rebel a bit?"

It actually sounded better when he spoke it aloud, and he was quite happy at the cover story when he saw realization and understanding pop into all the faces around him. Another split-second grasping of hands and the two separated to head to their dormitories, and Harry quickly shed his jeans and singlet before putting on his school clothes and adjusting his protective skin to come down to full length now that it would be hidden by the school shirt. He emerged onto the landing at the same time his sister did, and stifled a smirk when he saw several jealous looks from girls directed towards May at the fact that she didn't have to tame her hair every morning; she merely needed to rustle it up a bit to give it a wind-blown texture, and then place a low-powered stasis charm to keep it in that general shape.

It took a moment, but Harry finally realized that his sister wasn't the only one getting appreciative looks… and that several third and fourth year students were figuratively licking their lips. "Aw man," he muttered as he met his sister at the landing that led to the female and male dorms, "maybe walking in wearing just a singlet wasn't such a good idea."

"Should've thought about that before coming back," she snipped playfully back, hiding a smirk, "and I'd better not catch you with one of these hussies."

He held the portrait open for her before stepping out himself, idly noting that he matched most third-years in height now, and shook his head with a small chuckle before wrapping her in a one-armed hug for a second. Only she felt the extra warmth he injected into the squeeze, and he soon broke away. "I wouldn't ever do that." He yawned and thought for a moment. "First lesson is potions… I do wonder just what Snape's going to say?"

After sitting through breakfast with the entire hall staring at them, the two found out exactly what Snape thought of their new appearances. "Ah, it seems that the Potters are attention seekers genetically," he sneered, and Harry looked around the room uninterestedly. That only fuelled the man's ire further, and a moment later Harry found himself staring into the eyes of the Potion's Professor. The resulting mental attack felt as if somebody was tickling his Occlumency barriers with a feather, and Harry found himself severely unimpressed at the power behind the legilimency – just as he had been the last time. Apparently the man hadn't learned his lesson. Harry just raised an eyebrow and put on a confused and slightly disturbed expression as he watched sweat start to bead on the man's twitching brow.

"Professor… I didn't know you thought of me in that way."

"Seventy points from Hufflepuff!" the greasy-haired man roared, "and another fourth for your slovenly dress!"

"You don't think of me like that?" Harry squeaked, "Well what else was I supposed to think? I mean, you stride over to me and look into my eyes, leaning close enough to…" he scrunched up his face theatrically, "_kiss _me!" Snape looked ill at the thought alone, but Harry wasn't yet done. "And then you start sweating as if you were nervous as well! I'll submit my memories to the Board if I need to; I don't deserve points being taken away for my professor coming onto me!"

Snape was nearly green by this point, and with a look of complete sickness on his face he twisted away and strode back to the front of the class. "I cancel the point deductions." He sounded like he wanted to murder somebody, and most of the class was staring at Harry in complete awe; he'd managed to insult the most unfair professor in the entirety of Hogwarts, embarrass him, and then get away scot free. May was stifling her laughter.

The rest of the week consisted of fielding questions from curious professors as to why they looked so different, training, and avoiding the Headmaster with almost dogged thoroughness. The old man however, seemed content on waiting until the pair was separate before interrogating May, and so Harry found himself stepping out onto Platform 9¾ with silent expectation. He didn't have to wait long for Rita Skeeter to make an appearance; a flash of a camera alerting him to her presence. "Ah, Mister Uchiha! Just the person I wanted to—and May Potter too! Oh this is just too perfect! Miss Potter, what do you think about your brother and your parents for what they did to him?"

There was a limit to what May would say to appear loyal to Dumbledore's charms, but saying that she agreed was way, way over that line. "My brother is a wonderful person who I'm proud to call my best friend," she revealed firmly, "and while it may be accepted by the magical public that being a squib is a reason to abandon a five year old child in the most dangerous alley in Britain, I am steadfastly against it! I am disgusted with what my parents did, and I will be for as long as I live."

"Mister Uchiha," gushed the flamboyant reporter almost breathlessly, "what do you have to say to that?"

"Well Rita," he smiled warmly as he wrapped his arm around May's shoulders in a show of affection, though keeping it strictly platonic, "I'd be more than happy to tell you, such a brilliant and talented reporter from what I've read and heard," she looked as if she was very nearly ready to wet herself at the praise and apparent opportunity. "I hated the Potters ever since they abandoned me in Knockturn. I'm surprised no sources have come forwards to tell you this Rita, but then again my housemates are well renowned for being loyal to a fault… when Lily and James Potter abandoned me in Knockturn I was stabbed by a Harvester."

Everybody listening gave sharp gasps, and Riata was scratching furiously on a pad – foregoing her quick-quotes quill in favour of adding her own flair; his story didn't need embellishment to be incredible. "I had my eyes torn out, and was cut open before escaping." Everybody stared at his face in dead silence. "I managed to get to Gringotts where I collapsed, but was found by the head of the Uchiha family. As I had been disowned by the Potters the Uchiha head, who wishes to remain anonymous, decided to adopt me when he sensed the magical power I held. But you asked how I felt about the Potters… and I can no longer group them as that. May," he squeezed her closer for a moment, "is a fantastic person. While I once hated her; thinking that she was the reason for my ousting and subsequent abandonment, I realize now that she had nothing to do with it. She was an innocent five year old child, just as she is now an innocent eleven year old girl."

His eyes darkened, and shivers ran through the crowd at his next words and the coldness they carried. "Lily and James Potter however, I hate with everything that I am. They abandoned me; a five year old _wizard_, not a squib as they claimed, in _Knockturn_ alley. They caused me to experience the most agonizing pain you can possibly imagine, and then some, as an innocent child." He stared at Rita as if giving her a mission, and in all actuality he was. "You've always been a fair reporter Rita… make the Potters burn for what they did, just so long as my sister doesn't get caught in the backlash."

Rita Skeeter nodded furiously and rushed forward to shake his hand firmly; her face set. "I won't let you down Harry, I promise."

He sent her a smile and gave a small wink. "Keep fighting the good fight, Rita, and you might just find some anonymous bonuses coming your way."

He could almost see the dollar signs flashing in her eyes as she shook his hand even more furiously before departing, and Harry chuckled under his breath before placing his trunk on the ground and giving his girlfriend a firm hug. She smiled into his shoulder as she squeezed back, and saw red and black hair bobbing towards her through the crowd. "I love you Harry."

He smiled downwards and kissed her softly on the head; bending just enough that the action looked more like him whispering something in her ear. "I love you too May, be safe." She nodded as he pulled away, and Harry gave her hand one last squeeze before retreating into the crowd to watch what was about to happen.

His ex-parents didn't disappoint. It took them several seconds to actually locate May because she looked so different, and when they did they gaped for several seconds before rushing forwards; James speechless and Lily looking near-murderous. The crowd parted with the threat of being hexed by the red-haired woman, and she stopped a meter short of her daughter; her hands on her hips and the tips of her ears crimson. "May Janine Potter! What on Earth have you done to your hair? And how did you get that tan, or grow that much?"

It was then she caught sight of Harry over May's shoulder, and she stared agape at his pleased smirk for several seconds before advancing towards him. "Harry James Potter!" she all but yelled as she pushed past May and advanced towards him, and Harry drew his wand when he saw Lily do the same. He saw the violence bottled up in her body language, and wondered if he'd done enough to make her crack in public. Any normal witch or wizard would have missed the small movement of her wand, but Harry didn't. He'd already accounted for the probability, and everybody in the immediate vicinity stopped and stared when a beautiful, pearlescent shield burst into existence in front of him. He pretended to play the confused child, but then grinned after a moment. "Ah, it seems as though my Head of House is watching from the shadows."

He watched Lily's jaw clench in a fight with herself not to blurt out that she knew that _he_ was Lord Uchiha, and was slightly disappointed when she held herself back. She knew full well that throwing that to the public would get Harry even more support against her and her husband's actions over six years previous, and that was the last thing she wanted. "What gave you the right to do _that_ to my daughter," she hissed dangerously, and Harry looked around her body to stare at May for a second before straightening and raising an eyebrow.

Inciting the crowd seemed like a fabulous idea, especially as virtually the entire platform was silently still watching the drama unfold. Harry subtly waved off two aurors who made to step forward to intervene, and they stopped, albeit with surprise on their faces; most eleven year olds would jump at the chance to be rescued from an angry mother – especially if that mother's name was Lily Potter. "Everybody here," he called out, "please raise your hand if you disagree with the way my sister looks." No hands made an appearance, and Harry smirked at the fuming red-head. "'That' as you so put it, is her looking fabulous. She's got a nice tan, is fit, is over her growth pains, and her haircut ensures that she doesn't have to fuss over it every few hours to make it look okay… because it looks okay _all_ the time now. And it doesn't get in the way by drifting over her eyes."

"I _knew_ you would be a bad influence on my daughter," James finally ground out, and Harry raised an eyebrow when the man advanced until he was standing next to his wife.

Harry shook his head with an exasperated roll of his eyes – as much for the benefit of the audience as the cameraman next to Rita in the crowd. "Mister and Missus Potter… really? May's a peach; a wonderful young woman that wanted something different. I supplied her with some máv̱risma potion (**A.N: Greek for suntan**) I had imported from Greece, as well as a new potion developed by Potion Master David Littleton in America to accelerate puberty by a year overnight – simply to get the growing pains over and done with without sacrificing lifespan. The way I see it, and I'm sure many of the crowd does as well, many children _and_ parents would like the same treatment." He checked his timepiece before picking up his trunk once more; lifting it as if it weighed nothing, and Cicero wriggled to get more comfortable in his rat form within Harry's inner robe pocket. "As much as I'd like to continue making you look like complete failures as human beings, I do have places to be and people to see." He nodded surreptitiously to Rita whose eyes widened at being spotted, but then nodded back, and made his way to the apparition point before grinning and apparating away with a pop. He wondered how long James and Lily would yell at the Aurors to go and arrest him before somebody told them that he was fully emancipated due to his being an Uchiha, and thus allowed to apparate whenever he so wished.

He arrived in his London loft and threw his fake trunk in the corner while snapping the conjured chain around his neck and placing his real trunk at the bottom of his bed. "Evenin' Master Uchiha."

Harry turned around to smile at Nipsy who was busy reading a book on the couch; a cup of tea by her hand and a steaming cup of hot chocolate on the opposite side of the table waiting for him. He sat down and hummed appreciatively when he sipped at the perfectly made drink, and then leaned back with a sigh. "Evening Nipsy, how goes things in the world of elves?"

"Busy busy busy," she fired back, creasing the page she was reading to mark it before closing the cover and sipping from her own cup. "There's been a lot of activity ever since the article came out about the Uchiha House being alive again. As you thought though, nobody's leaked that you're Lord Uchiha. Dumbledore likely wants to keep it quiet so you don't have too much support, and Lily and James, devil damn their souls, don't want to piss off the public any more than they have already. It's bad enough that they abandoned a wizard, let alone an Uchiha, and if it got out that it wasn't just any Uchiha but the Lord Uchiha… chaos."

Harry nodded and chewed on one of the marshmallows he'd managed to suck out of the steaming treat. "Mmmm, I thought so. The article in the Prophet tomorrow will be interesting to read. I might have gotten Rita Skeeter on my side."

Nipsy raised an eyebrow, "You mean the reporter that congratulated the Potters publicly on disposing of you when they had the chance?"

"Yeah, that one."

"I thought better of you."

He sent the small creature a small scowl of irritation, "And you should know that I had my reasons. The government I can work with ease simply with my name and resources… but the public is harder to sway. Rita is a respected writer despite what a disgusting excuse of a human being she is, and I need her to get the public on my side. A few galleons here and there to smooth the deal over and she's my personal propaganda minister."

"Ah," Nipsy murmured after a moment looking contrite, "sorry."

He stared at her for a couple of seconds before nodding and taking another sip of his drink to signal that the matter was dealt with. "Nipsy, would you be able to prepare the second bedroom for May if something happens or if she just wants to escape for a while? And make sure our medical stock is replenished with any new improved potions developed since I went to Hogwarts."

Nipsy stood and bowed before walking to the kitchen with her cup and saucer floating dutifully behind her. "Of course Harry."

The young Uchiha sat back and leant his head on the top of the sofa; staring aimlessly at the ceiling as he wondered what on Earth to do with himself. He'd become so used to May's company over the year he'd spent with her that not being able to simply turn his head to speak to her was disconcerting. He knew she'd be getting the third degree from James and Lily and felt a pang of guilt, as he'd certainly perpetuated matters. She _did_ have methods of communicating with him however, so he'd know if she was in danger, but it didn't mean that he was any less worried. He had every right to be nervous considering that she was his girlfriend, and he was her boyfriend.

He gave a chuckle as he thought about 'meet the parents' evening, and it soon morphed into full-blown laughter when the mental image sharpened itself in his mind. He forced himself to calm when he felt a knocking on his wards, and mentally lowered the floo-block when he noted the origin of the intrusion. Barely a second later green flames roared into existence, and Harry watched as a goblin stepped regally out looking completely unruffled. "Account Manager Gripclaw," Harry greeted with surprise, "may your enemies' heads roll and your vaults fill with their gold."

The goblin grinned scarily back; all of his sharp teeth bared. "And may yours do likewise, Lord Uchiha. You seem surprised to see me."

Harry chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "It must seem terribly rude, Gripclaw, and for that I apologize."

"I understand how you could forget, with all that's been going on lately. I am here about the letter you sent me about the rare artefacts you wanted acquired." Harry's eyes lit up in recognition, and he sat forward attentively. "Unfortunately none were available."

"Oh… well that's a shame then."

The goblin noticed the rather dejected tone in his client's voice and grinned. "Ah, none were available Lord Uchiha; however that didn't mean that we couldn't acquire a pair."

"Oh?"

"Yes," nodded the goblin, looking inordinately pleased with himself, "we put our feelers out and the Flamels answered our call."

Harry's eyebrows shot up until they nearly disappeared underneath his fringe. "And why would the Flamels want to help me?"

"Well there's the gold you offered in reward for said artefacts," Gripclaw explained, "however they seemed to be interested in you specifically. They passed on their contact details for me to give to you, and informed me that you are free to visit any time."

Harry's eyebrows shot back up from where they had been dropping. "That's… wow. Um, so did they give you the journals?"

The goblin pulled out two plain-looking, black leather journals and shook his head. "They asked for me to fetch two matching journals, and when I brought back these two from my office they enchanted them right in front of me."

Harry gaped at the artefacts his account manager was holding. Mirror Journals were _impossible_ to get new these days; the art having been long lost when Hidden Horakai Village in Japan had been decimated by the Hiroshima atomic bomb in '48. He took them tentatively before smiling at the magic he felt radiating from them. "This is truly fantastic, Gripclaw. For taking the time to come from the Taiwan Branch and actually fulfil this request please take two hundred galleons for your hard work."

The goblin's eyes lit up with excitement, and he bowed in thanks. "It is always refreshing to find a wizard that actually shows their appreciation in a way us goblins understand."

Harry peered inside the first journal and took the piece of paper from inside, giving a confused smile when he saw the floo address inside. "Did the Flamels say why they were interested in me?"

Gripclaw stopped mid-throw of the floo powder and turned back around to shake his head. "No, Lord Uchiha, they did not."

Harry nodded thoughtfully before smiling at the goblin and giving an incline of his head. "Until next time Account Manager Gripclaw."

"Until then, Lord Uchiha," the goblin grinned back before disappearing into the green flames, and Harry stared at the piece of paper in his hand before shrugging and walking towards the fireplace; grabbing the Philosopher's Stone from his trunk on the way past. He gave a slightly nervous chuckle at the name of the floo address and took in a deep breath before throwing a handful of floo powder into the grate and calling out "The Torture Room," as he activated his Sharingan.

When he saw the end coming near her readied himself, and the moment he was out of the fireplace had forced a wide-area Tsukuyomi into the room. He found himself staring at a man and a woman looking completely shocked as they were strapped to twin white crosses, and put his hands on his hips before raising an eyebrow.

"Perenelle," murmured the man after a moment, "I think we were just beaten."

Harry stared at the man for several seconds. "The Torture Room, really? Couldn't you have chosen something vaguely non-dangerous sounding?"

"I really don't think that's the issue here Harry," the forty-something-seeming man replied, "the issue here is that you, an eleven year old boy, just got the drop on myself and my wife – both of us nearly seven hundred years old."

"Ah, no, the issue _is_ the naming of your floo address," Harry shot back, not in the least intimidated by the knowledge of the man in front of him, as he had over twice as much, nor of his power, as he was at much the same level, if not higher. "Surely you knew that the Uchiha were warriors, and some of the best… I was not about to floo into a torture chamber unprepared."

"So it would seem…" mused Nicolas as he looked around, "and this is simply spectacular! Where are we exactly?"

"That's a bit of a family secret," Harry said as he circled the man, poking him in the chest with a small glare, "and I can stretch this out for hundreds of days if need be –unless you apologize for such a stupid name!"

Perenelle sent her husband a stern expression. "Nicolas, apologize. This was entirely your idea, and these ropes are getting painful."

The bearded man sighed and nodded. "Very well. I'm sorry for the silly name Harry, now can you let us down?"

The next second Nicolas and Perenelle were looking around in shock at finding themselves still sitting where they had been; their cups of tea held halfway to their lips. The former managed to catch a slight glance at Harry's Sharingan before they morphed back into their normal form, and the young man sighed before walking across to the pair and sitting down; arranging himself in mid-air once more. It was something of a novelty for him.

"We were right in being interested in you," Perenelle commented as she completed the action she had been attempting before being sucked into Tsukuyomi; sipping on her tea. "Such control over your magic, and wandlessly too; the ability to defeat a people simply through eye contact; a wand made of your own femur; and the Lord of one of the Founding Four… all at eleven years old."

"Thirteen," Harry corrected after a moment, supposing that if they knew so much already a little more wouldn't hurt, "if we're going by the physical time I've been alive. The ICW was very accommodating with their time chamber."

"Two years is their theoretical maximum," warned the brown-haired alchemist after a moment, and Harry nodded with a simple smile.

"I know, and I'm done now. I think I can stand being in the normal time strand… just so long as people like you don't make me pull them into the world you experienced."

"Time dilation is experienced there?" Nicolas exclaimed with surprise, and Harry nodded as he politely thanked a house-elf that appeared with a cup of tea for him.

"Yes, up to just over one hundred thousand times slower than real time."

Both immortals gaped. "That means-"

"I could make you experience twenty four days in twenty seconds," Harry completed, "yes, that's correct. That seems to be my upper limit at the current time, and I have a feeling it won't be getting much better."

"I-I assume you would not let us conduct experiments?"

Harry smiled kindly but shook his head. "Most certainly not. It is a family secret, and it will stay that way. But I didn't come all the way here to talk about me," he continued before withdrawing the Philosopher's Stone from his pocket, eliciting another round of wide eyes, "I came to return this and your invitation for a visit."

"Where on Earth did you find this?" the long-haired Asian woman asked, and Harry smiled darkly back.

"Lemon Drop anybody?"

"I KNEW IT!" the woman snapped irately to her husband, "I just _knew_ he'd taken it! I told you to hide it better, especially from such a persistent child! Honestly Nick, I've said it once, I've said it twice, Dumbledore's a stubborn, senile old goat fuc-"

"Pern! Harry's only thirteen!"

She immediately closed her mouth, blushing embarrassedly, and Harry stared at the two before shaking his head. "You two are nothing like what I envisioned."

Nicolas grinned and leaned back in his chair. "Let me guess… long white beard, glasses, old-fashioned robes, wrinkled skin, ye olde English… how am I doing so far?"

"Brilliantly," Harry shot back dryly, and Perenelle laughed.

"And you're nothing like what _we_ expected. It's been hundreds of years since we were bested, you have power inside the ICW to get access to their time chamber, and as well as that you're far, far more eloquent and mature than your years would suggest."

Harry decided to _not_ let them know about the one and a half thousand years of memories he had in his head. "Well now that we're all sufficiently surprised with each other, how may I help you? And thank you for the journals; they're wonderful and will prove very useful."

Nicolas waved him off, "Not a problem at all. If your money didn't cover the effort, the return of the Philosopher's Stone most certainly does – in fact it leaves us in debt to you. Our stores of the Elixir of Life were getting low. We would not be against giving you access to those stores as repayment."

Harry laughed but waved his hand much as Nicolas had to him moments earlier. "No need for that, Mister and Missus Flamel-"

"Just Nick and Pern will suffice," smiled the Asian woman kindly, and Harry smiled before nodding and continuing.

"Well there'll be no need for that. I already have the life-span problem in hand – and once again that's a family secret," he added when he saw curiosity burning in their eyes, which quickly morphed to disappointment. "Though I will ask for one favour." The two immortals looked at him expectantly, and he smiled. "Sanctuary. If need be, may I come to you for sanctuary and aid? I won't ask your to step into the political firing line, but just so long as I have a place that I can bring myself and any others I deep worthy if we're injured or just need a place to hide out. Is this acceptable?"

The two smiled, though it was Nicolas that answered. "Harry, we were willing to offer you immortality… sanctuary is nothing compared to that, and so we readily agree."

Harry smiled. "Wonderful. Now that we've got that out of the way, how may I help you two?"

Perenelle leaned forwards and smiled. "We'd quite like to know what your plans are, Harry."

He chuckled, "That's a lot to ask, Pern. Many of my plans rely on them not being discovered before they are put into action, and so spreading them around is not on my to-do list."

She leaned back looking understanding. "Well then perhaps you would simply tell us about yourself. It's not often anybody interesting comes into the magical world, and it's about the only thing that excites Nick and myself these days." She smiled at him. "Regale us."

He laughed genuinely and leaned forwards. "I think I can do that. You would have heard of Heinrich Keller?"

"The Necromancer?" Perenelle asked, surprised, and Harry nodded with a grin. Nicholas burst into laughter after a moment and sat forwards.

"I think I really like this kid."


	7. Chapter 7

Harry looked around Dumbledore's office with a small frown, and his eyes darkened with anger when he sensed the multiple presences hidden under various charms and artefacts. His Christmas holidays had been fabulous, probably the best he'd had in his life. May had somehow managed to get a present to him, and he'd been ecstatic to see that she'd manually developed a memory strand into a photo of them both hugging with wide smiles on their faces when they were in the time chamber. That photo and frame was sat right by his bed, both at his London apartment and the one in his trunk.

But now Christmas was over and Harry was back at school. May hadn't been on the train, and nor was she answering any of his messages in the enchanted journals… and now he had an idea why. Dumbledore was staring back at him with sad eyes, and Harry's eyes narrowed when he heard the deep sigh. "Harry, I truly wish it hadn't come to this. Your article in the Prophet has caused the Potters no end of trouble – they can't even venture out in public anymore, and James has lost his job with the Auror Corps. Lily is managing to bring in some money from a muggle job after being fired from St Mungos… but your actions have made their family less than dirt to the public."

Harry crossed his right leg over his left and brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes. "I disagree," he argued calmly, "I have not caused the Potters to be looked at as less than dirt. I have caused James and Lily to be looked at as who they truly are as people. I incited public opinion Albus, and I must remind you to address me properly."

As Harry spoke he was pushing out probes to investigate the witches and wizards hidden around the room, and found two absurdly easy to identify. '_So James and Lily are here…' _he mused before moving onto others, and raised a subtle eyebrow when he found all of the magical signatures at the very least Auror level. '_So he plans to attack me with force to manipulate me…'_

Harry wasn't really surprised; he'd not given the old goat many other options. His legal status as Lord Uchiha left him emancipated, and completely above the law. He could walk into the Ministry and murder the Minister of Magic and they wouldn't technically be able to do a thing about it… though that knowledge was buried deep in dusty archives, and Harry had the feeling that even Dumbledore didn't know the true extent of the Uchiha power. Legally he was untouchable, which left spell-aided manipulations, however his occlumency cancelled compulsion spells out quite nicely. They could use something he loved against him, but since May was the only thing they knew he loved they were at a loss there too; there was no way they were going to damage their poster girl.

This left attacking him into submission, whereupon he would be left weak enough for them to penetrate his mental barriers and fundamentally alter his mind. Doing it to a normal person was highly illegal, and doing it to an Uchiha was grounds for death… but Harry guessed that Dumbledore was at the end of his rope. Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel had shed light on Dumbledore over their conversations in the holidays, and Harry could see just how the man had changed. In his younger days Dumbledore truly was the Light Lord; fighting for freedom and what was right, but he had been corrupted by age and desensitization. No longer did he consider sacrifices unacceptable, or the questionability of the methods he used to achieve the 'Greater Good', just so long as he got what he wanted in the end. To him the end justified the means.

Ideas and contingency plans blasted around in Harry's head as Dumbledore blabbered on about how he'd had high hopes for the young teen, and he found the list getting shorter and shorter as he singled out the very best ideas of the lot. As soon as he had the plan solidified he started erecting fail safes around what he was scheming, but got cut momentarily short when Dumbledore lifted his wand. Instantly over twenty high-powered confundus charms burst from points of thin air around the room, and they were quickly followed by a barrage of imperius curses. Harry raised his eyebrow at that; he hadn't expected such spells to be employed, but after thinking about it for a millisecond he realized that he should have.

He didn't try to even dodge a single spell, and a moment later felt the waves of magic smashing brutally against his shields. Occlumency could only stand so much, and the combined weight of the confundus charms left them as rubble; creating a paved path for the far more potent Unforgivables. It was clear, however, that many of the people casting had never before used the curse. The magic was unfocussed and untamed, which made it incredibly easy for Harry to tether the tendrils of control-laden magic to his magical shields to help power them against the rest. He was pitting each and every person attacking him against each other, and wasn't suffering any effort whatsoever himself apart from Severus Snape's spell and Dumbledore's; both of which _did_ know what they were doing. He acted out a valiant struggle, enough to have them convinced that he was as magically powerful as a Hogwarts' Graduate, but then allowed his magical wall to shrink inwards slightly before holding it as steady as stone.

He saw Dumbledore's eyes light up as the resistance 'gave way' and Harry fed the manipulative old coot a false stream of consciousness as he continued his planning that he'd been so rudely interrupted in the middle of. The Uchiha were completely immune to mind magics; they had to be in order to not fall into Tsukuyomi and lose themselves there, and so not even fifty people of Dumbledore's calibre shooting imperius at him would even ruffle his magical wall. He listened to Dumbledore outlining his orders and implementing his changes to his mind, and frowned at several instructions given.

There was clearly no way he was going to hand a single thing of the Uchiha family over to anybody but May, and Dumbledore was asking for _everything_. Harry jumped the question about the red eyes Hermione had accused him of, feigning truth that he had never before experienced a change in eye colour, and then outlined a series of fake oaths he had 'taken' in order to become an Uchiha. Dumbledore was furious when he discovered that 'all official Uchiha business required an independent mental-health check before being authorized', and the elder Potters had screamed and ranted for nearly half an hour trying to get a loophole in the condition.

Such a condition didn't exist of course, but Harry's word was law. The goblins already had contingencies in place that he had outlined with them, and if anybody asked about the validity of those 'laws and oaths' they would swear on their lives they were valid.

Because they were, technically.

An hour and a half into the mind-bending exercise everybody was getting tired from holding such a powerful spell for so long, especially as several people had already collapsed from magical exhaustion and the remaining magicals had to take up the slack. Harry watched from behind the safety of his magic as Dumbledore gave his final order.

"Harry, in addition to everything I have already said, you will also believe that you are a Potter again - no matter what evidence is provided in the contrary."

The black-haired 'Potter' nodded dutifully, and Dumbledore gave a round of nods to everybody. With sighs of relief and exhaustion they released the magic they had been feeding into the boy for the past nearly-two hours, and fell promptly onto their rumps while Harry sagged 'unconscious' in his chair. It was to be expected; such mental reconditioning was extremely taxing on the entire body. He allowed himself to be levitated into the medical bay, and promptly rolled his eyes as soon as he had been left alone, which was half an hour later because Dumbledore talked to Lily and James about how they should act around Harry.

He knew that there was an absolute swarm of magical surveillance around him, and so gave a small sigh before shuffling to get comfortable and falling asleep. The next thing he knew May was shaking him awake looking terrified and shooting glances over her shoulder at the medical bay doors. "Harry, Harry, you've got to escape! James and Lily say they're taking you home and that you're a Potter again!"

He had to force himself to frown, knowing that Dumbledore would be watching the conversation with intense interest, and then gave an unsure laugh. "Escape? Why would I want to do that?" He watched as worry appeared in her eyes, but continued all the same. "I talked with mum and dad last night about what they did, but they were really, truly sorry… so I decided to come back. Is that alright with you?"

She gaped at him, wide eyed and disbelieving, and then shook her head as she shook him by the shoulders. "Stop joking! Get out of here-"

"Hey, Mum, Dad!" he cut her off mid-sentence by smiling and waving over May's shoulder, and she turned around with dread, her entire countenance dropping when she saw that she wasn't mistaken, and that her _brother_ had just called Lily and James _mum and dad_. Lily beamed at Harry and came over to give him a big hug while James stood looking at the two with a pleased look on his face.

"May, leave your brother alone. He wants to come back."

"You've done something to hi-"

Harry cut her off mid-yell by grabbing her hand and smiling reassuringly up at her shocked green eyes. "I've forgiven them May, and now we can all be a family again. The Potters are finally complete." She was about to burst out with another yell, but froze when she felt Harry rub the small indent in the side of her wrist before letting her hand go.

She stared at him with wide eyes for a second, but then Harry saw a glint of restrained laughter light within her. He could tell that the hesitation was forced when she next spoke, and could hear the barely noticeable inflictions of joy held within her tone. "I… I don't know how you can forgive them so easily," she muttered, but then took on a thoughtful look. "But maybe if you can… maybe I can too."

Harry saw both Lily and James shoot each other grins, and pretended not to see it. Instead he moved to sit up, and then pretended to waver. James immediately steadied him, and Harry grinned thankfully up at the man, hiding his complete and utter contempt underneath his occlumency. "Thanks… I guess I was more exhausted than I thought."

"You'll be okay sweetie," Lily assured him, and Harry sent her a beaming smile.

The rest of the morning was a teeth-grindingly sweet affair where Harry had to restrain himself from doubling one of the two adults over and kneeing them full in the face, but he somehow managed. Dumbledore rolled in mid-day to tell the Potters that he had no problem with them going home for the weekend, and Harry found himself promptly whisked away to the Potter mansion with May by his side. For the next two days Harry truly got to see the side of his parents he'd always known existed.

It was repulsive.

On the Friday night, mere hours after leaving Hogwarts, Rita Skeeter appeared on request of Dumbledore and Harry had to force himself to give a touching, apologetic story to her about how he'd been wrong about his parents and that he was begging the public to take what he said back. Just before the garishly dressed woman could leave however, Harry had grabbed her hand and subtly pressed a galleon into her palm. "I meant what I said, Miss Skeeter," he'd said with what sounded like complete sincerity, "every word."

Both of them knew that he was talking about the gold he'd pay her to keep her on his payroll and fighting the good fight, and Rita had been left gaping for several seconds before bursting out into laughter much to the confusion of the Potters. Their complete naivety about how they were being played so masterfully only made her laugh harder, and she apparated away wheezing out that Harry had just looked hilariously cute.

The Saturday was spent with the Potters parading him around Diagon to show how they were once more amazing people, and Sunday was spent with Harry 'playing' at the Manor. During that day he and May had managed to get five minutes alone to talk without prying ears, and Harry had found himself on the receiving end of the most passionate and loving kiss he'd ever imagined. Both had broken away from the other's lips feeling lightheaded, but were in a magnificent mood for the rest of the day.

Over the following week Hermione Granger became one of their 'friends', just as she was supposed to, and Harry had to stifle his darker side every single day he allowed the authority-worshipping, backstabbing little bint beat him in class – just as he was supposed to according to Dumbledore's manipulations.

Ronald Weasley, however, he simply couldn't abide, and neither could May. Harry had invited him along on the adventure to get the 'Philosopher's Stone' eight months later simply so he could 'accidentally' bump the ginger idiot into the path of one of Fluffy's heads. The result had been the boy's arm being reduced to mincemeat hanging by sinews to bone, and Hermione had been relegated to taking the boy back to the hospital wing before he died.

May had loved chasing the dud key on the broom, and Harry had watched her weave in and out of the beams covering the ceiling with a smile on his face. The chess game they had to play legitimately, as Harry had seen Dumbledore watching with a flicker of his Sharingan eyes, and Harry'd had to stop and clear the smell of rotting flesh when they came across the dead troll. May had simply sat back and gagged at the awful stench. Since it was just the two of them however, Dumbledore had apparently decided to help them out on the last obstacle and had smashed all the other bottles leaving only the right one to get through the black flames.

And what a coincidence; there was just enough for two people.

Inside Quirrel had been getting angrier and angrier at the mirror, at least until he had seen Harry and May standing 'scared' just after the flames. What had followed was a whirlwind of activity, where Harry had a fake Philosopher's Stone placed in his pocket by his reflection, and May had allowed herself to be caught unawares by the 'stumbling' DADA professor. Both then got their first look at Voldemort, and Harry had been repulsed. He didn't even look human, not in the least, and strongly resembled a snake in appearance. He had talked almost like one too.

Harry had had to choreograph the next set of actions perfectly so that May still came across as the Girl-Who-Lived. He'd studied black magic when he was younger, and knew full well that Voldemort would be weakened against the cause of his death. Using Amaterasu he had lit Quirrel on fire the moment his sister had touched the abomination, and had then pretended to be asleep once more as his sister 'collapsed from exhaustion'.

When the pair next had some time together alone they had laughed their heads of at how quickly Dumbledore had accepted what had happened, and silently agreed when the man had said that the power that hurt Voldemort was love. Without their love Harry wouldn't have given May the Sharingan. Over the next months Harry and May's relationship had deepened, though through absence. The times they could get alone were few and far between due to the increased monitoring charms placed on them, but the snippets of time and stolen moments were all the more exciting and more meaningful because of it.

As they went through their second year at the 'safest school in Britain' their messages to each other in their enchanted journals became less frequent, though not for a lack of fidelity or affection. They had developed a language of gestures and small twinges of magic by the fifth month of their frustratingly slow months with Lockhart as a teacher, if he could even be called that, and by the time petrifications begun the two could hold entire conversations filled with meaning and deep emotion simply from small fluctuations in their magic – magic which was so in tune that their conversations could be held silently undetected even if they were twenty meters away from each other.

Harry had seen the darkness tinting Ginny Weasley with ease as it developed, small flickers of his true eyes and Uchiha birth right allowing him to study it in detail. He was appalled that nobody was noticing the changes in her personality – especially her older brother Percy who was supposed to be Head Boy. May was likewise surprised, but both put aside their hatred for the lack of care to monitor the young first year.

Hermione, in answer to Harry's prayers, had been one of the students petrified. He had been days away from forcefully wiping the superior smirk from her lips. Ron, however, was not taken from their 'loving arms', and so they had to put up with his company and constant winging about their study habits which were, in all actuality, simply an excuse to get away from the chess-obsessed dunderhead. Harry had found it odd that Draco Malfoy, the resident power-collector hadn't approached him or May, but discovered why when overhearing a conversation between the blonde and his cronies. Apparently James Potter had some evidence against the older Malfoy and was blackmailing the family…

Harry had found that incredibly interesting, and when he next saw James he had dropped hints about the conversation he had heard. The surge of disgust was more than enough to temporarily allow his surface thoughts to be skimmed, and Harry Uchiha had nearly gagged at the memory his father had of catching one Mister Malfoy and one Mister Nott in a rather compromising position. He doubted he could look Draco in the eye ever again.

Eventually the night had come where Ginny had gone missing, and Harry had had quite a bit of fun memory charming the pants off Ronald and the complete fraud Lockhart. May and he had carried on alone; leaving the two deadbeats unconscious at the bottom of the tunnel, and had entered the Chamber of Secrets with expectation. It was, after all, Slytherin's hidden chamber. Tom Riddle had greeted them both with a sneer, and then attempted to disarm them, only to find their defensive shields impossible to break through.

The Basilisk had then been set lose, and Harry had simply stared right into its eyes while baring his Sharingan. Tom had been confused at the appearance of Harry's eyes, but unfortunately for him had no time to ask questions as Harry had walked right up to the diary, picked it up, and then thrown it to the Basilisk with a yelled, "Bite it!"

Tom had watched, horrified, as the dairy was pierced by the fangs of the huge beast, and screamed out his agony and fury at being defeated by the very thing he had called on as an ally. Stunning Ginny before the irritating girl could awaken both Harry and May had conjured a couch, snuggled up together blissfully, and then conversed with the ancient beast for the next hour. Ariadnae, as they learned, had been living in the Chamber for over eight hundred years after being brought to Britain by Salazar himself. They earned themselves an ally for their kindness in not killing her as many would have, and she gave them the grand tour – even showing them Salazar's private quarters that also housed tomes of immense knowledge and power.

A story had been concocted as they levitated the unconscious Weasleys and Lockhart up the stairs that Harry had called forth in Parseltongue, and May had pouted when Harry informed her that as much as he would love to, he couldn't really _teach_ the language to her as it was an inherited trait which Voldemort had passed onto him.

When Harry had put it like that, May had been very happy to _not_ actually be the Girl-Who-Lived.

Dumbledore, once again, had accepted their story and had once more reiterated that the power that allowed May to beat the beast – which they neglected to mention was still alive – was love.

The twins' next year at Hogwarts was frustratingly uneventful and boring. Harry once more put out sub-standard grades, and May was forced to put up with the suddenly very friendly Ronald Weasley who even had the gall to ask her out to Hogsmeade.

It stood to reason she had declined, though when she had told Harry she had had to stop her brother from going and torturing the shallow red-head. That particular argument, if it could even be called that, ended with brother and sister trying their very best to show just how much they loved the other. It was the first time May allowed Harry's hands to wander over the top of her clothes without consequence, and both had enjoyed the experience immensely. Harry had also built up a friendship with Ernie and Justin, while May enjoyed the company of Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. They were nowhere near close enough to consider their respective friends trusted enough to reveal any secrets, but they all had fun together and it did take the monotony out of everyday life.

Harry had managed to escape the Potters three times over the course of that year, and Hogwarts twice, and in every case he had visited the Flamels to talk his plans over with them, and to give them letters to deliver if he needed it done. Once he even managed to get May out of the castle with him, and had found Perenelle cooing over just how cute they looked together – not even seeming to care that they were romantically involved twins.

The year had ended with Slytherin winning the House Cup, and Harry couldn't care less. May had grumbled about how Snape was clearly being a complete, to quote her verbatim, "Fucking douchebag," about it, but all that had achieved was having Harry in stitches for several minutes laughing his head off. By this point the Potters and Dumbledore had silently agreed that Harry was clearly not going to revert back to his old habits, and so occasionally left him and May home alone while they ran errands.

It was ironic that they chose the holidays before chaos to decide everything was going to be alright…

Because nothing could have been further from the truth.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Well the last chapter got a very mixed reception - some absolutely hated it and have apparently abandoned this story, while others understand why I did it. I've written several stories that follow canon, and doing a rewrite of the books with only minor changes would be a waste of time, and my writing would be crap because I'd find it boring. Another thing that came up was: why doesn't Harry just flip off the Potters and Dumbles and rock the world? Well Harry's never had a childhood - ever. He's never just hung out in the garden and played; he's never had Christmas with family (even though he hates two of them); he's never had a birthday party... he wanted a little bit of that, and now it's fourth year - where the action starts, without running through generic tales of first, second, and third year which would be abysmally boring. So this is a 'gift offering' for the last chapter being a skim-job, I hope you like it.**

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Harry Uchiha sighed as he looked up at the eerie green monstrosity hanging in the sky. He'd seen it plenty of times before in books and old history reports, but seeing it up close and personal was something new. "It's just as ugly as the books said," he murmured as he kicked the corpse of a Death Eater when he strolled past; the masked head impaled by a spear of ice and pinning it to the tree behind.

He wandlessly banished a muggle tent peg into the temple of another fleeing Death Eater and rolled his eyes at the complete lack of spatial awareness being displayed. He himself was covered in blood; his white shirt almost transparent with the stuff, was holding a mean looking wand, and his Sharingan was burning with light in the darkness. If there was anything to look out for when being the bad guy, it was a person with glowing red eyes. He saw three more Death Eaters running for the tree-line in order to escape their own anti-apparation wards, and waited until they were perfectly lined up before sending a huge spike of ice at them. Three death screams echoed out in the smoke-filled night a moment later, and Harry peered at the silhouettes, grinning with a small fist pump when he saw all three fall over.

He'd been 'separated' from his dear family soon after the first warning yells had rung out, and was sure that James or Lily, or both, had already called in Dumbledore to track his location down. He waved his wand vaguely over his body, cleaning it of blood from the more close-quarter kills he'd made that evening, or the more explosive curses he'd employed, and then quickly cast a long string of mundane household charms to clear his wand of all the dark curses he'd been using.

"Harry!"

He turned around, plastering a look of fear on his face, and slumped his shoulders convincingly when he saw his 'parents' running towards him – May not far behind at all, though he did notice some splatters of blood on her own clothes. Apparently he hadn't been the only one to sneak a few kills in. "Mum, Dad," he gushed as he was engulfed in a group hug, "I-I was so worried when I lost you guys! And then I saw all those Death Eaters get cut down and I-I thought that whoever was killing them might kill me and-"

He'd been speaking progressively faster and faster until he was rambling, and Lily cut him off with a finger to his lips. "Shhh, it's okay now. James is an Auror and backup should be arriving soon." Before she had even finished her sentence a series of loud cracks came from behind them, and they all turned to see ten men and women in navy blue robes; their Auror badges glinting softly in the moonlight. The one at the head of the group gave a sigh as he looked up at the Dark Mark.

"Hell of a bloody mess to clean up," Harry heard him mutter, and squeezed his sister's hand while everybody's attention was diverted. Harry played the scared teenager when questioned about what he'd seen and the Death Eaters that had been cut down, but eventually the Auror in charge of interrogating him gave him up as a lost cause; too distraught and freaked out to have seen anything of use.

The Potters apparated the two twins home snappish, and after a fair amount of fussing and questioning were put to bed with a dreamless sleep potion each. Harry fed the potion to Cicero who was being inordinately noisy because he was annoyed he hadn't been allowed to go to the World Cup. The silly shapeshifter was becoming more and more irate as his mate's pregnancy progressed, and both Harry and his familiar had been giving each other a lot of personal space of late - not that they were any less close, but they understood that they each had lives. Harry cracked open his journal before licking the tip of his fountain pen and beginning to write.

'_How on Earth did you get away from James and Lily?'_

He had to wait several minutes before the familiar, elegant scrawl of his sister replied, and shook his head with a chuckle. '_Get away? No, not me. I just did it right underneath their noses and they didn't notice. An organ-expelling curse here, a high-powered banisher there, and a few piercing curses on top, and now there's a few less Death Eaters in the world. How many did you get?'_

'_Fifteen or so,'_ he guessed, but then put in a question mark. '_I couldn't tell sometimes, because I was just launching blasting curses into the middle of some of their groups at the beginning when I didn't have my Sharingan active.'_

He could almost hear her chuckling in the room beside his. _'Well it was certainly an interesting way to start the new school year. You ready for Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts next week?'_

He grinned and drew a deviously grinning smiley face on the page. _'Are you kidding? I can't wait!_'

They wrote about some plans they had in action before bidding each other goodnight, and Harry smiled when he saw a pair of lips appear on the page after she had written '_I love you'_.

'_I love you too May'_

He closed the journal before swiping his finger across the latch locking it, and felt a drop of his blood fall onto the metal before disappearing; rendering all the contents inside completely innocent-seeming if somebody did perchance break into it and not undergo a world of torture as the protection mechanisms tore into them.

The rest of the week passed with normalcy reigning supreme, until the night before school begun where Lily and James went out for dinner and left the twins alone in the house. May had dragged Harry into her room the moment the crack of disapparation signalled their parents' disappearance, and had pushed him onto her bed before leaning down and kissing him. The fact that she was his sister always sent an extra shiver of arousal down his spine, and that night was no different in that respect. They had lain together for nearly three hours; softly kissing and touching each other gently over their clothes as they snuggled and bathed in each other's warmth and assurances of love.

He woke up early the next morning and snuck down to the kitchen to begin cooking breakfast, and smiled when May walked into the room bleary-eyed but smiling lovingly at him when she saw the steaming cup of herbal tea waiting for her. She walked around the counter and stood on her toes to peck his lips before leaning into his side and closing her eyes with a contented sigh, and Harry smiled down at her before kissing the top of her head. "Sleep well?"

"How could I not," she muttered quietly as she kissed the exposed bit of chest in the neck of his dressing gown, and then broke away to sit on the opposite side of the kitchen counter. "And I had the best dreams." He smiled and nodded, having experienced a good night's sleep himself after their time together, and then served up her bacon, eggs, and hash browns onto her plate before dishing his own. "No food for the folks?" May asked questioningly, and Harry rolled his eyes at the undertone of sarcasm. He pointed to two plates sitting under warming charms.

"No, I only cook for you. I got Nipsy to go and get that from the Leaky Cauldron."

She beamed up at him and kissed his cheek quickly, just fast enough that a messy-haired James, still half-asleep, didn't catch it. "Mmm, smells good."

Harry pointed to the plates on the counter and stifled a disgusted scowl; the man could at least try and look vaguely presentable in the morning. James didn't even notice the fact that his breakfast was a little less fresh than his children's, and instead settled down and dug in as if he hadn't been fed for a week. Harry, not for the first time, wondered if James and Ron Weasley weren't in some way related. Lily appeared about five minutes later, already dressed and made up, and Harry winced at the bright red lipstick she was wearing. It clashed rather badly with her hair, but Harry wasn't about to tell her. She too moved straight over to her breakfast and started eating, though with some modicum of class, but Harry noted that neither thanked him for 'making' their breakfast.

It was just another reminder that they were acting just as much as he was.

Well, perhaps a little less.

Lily cleaned up while Harry and May went and grabbed their trunks, and from there James apparated the pair to Platform 9¾ as Lily had an early shift at St Mungos. Harry wasn't sad at all to see the back end of her, and judging by the relieved sigh from May neither was she. James lathered May with goodbyes before giving Harry a single hug and disapparating. May shook her head with a wide grin. "Man it's good to be rid of those two again."

Harry ignored the stares aimed at him and his sister and nodded in agreement; his own smile equally as wide. "Yeah… and this'll be the last time May. The moment you-know-what happens we're back to normal."

She looked euphoric. "I can't wait."

Henry Athelstan had provided Harry with all the details about the Triwizard Tournament without the youth even having to ask, and Harry had collected the information while on one of his visits to the Flamels. He was on autopilot all the way to Hogwarts, as he didn't want to have to consciously interact with the two 'friends' sitting opposite him; one with mousy hair and the other with lots of freckles, and a rather fiery mop. The only things that stood out were the minute brushes of affectionate touch he and his sister managed to share with one another when attention was elsewhere.

They had had to bolt for the carriages when they arrived at Hogwarts due to the downpour outside, which had given Harry the opportunity to gently cup his sister's wonderfully shaped breasts under the guise of casting a drying charm on her. He had seen her shiver with excitement at being touched so intimately within mere meters of being discovered and reported to Dumbledore by Ron and Hermione who were sitting merely opposite, and had had to force herself not to crash her lips into Harry's. During the carriage ride on the way up she held Harry's hand underneath the folds of his robes, and delighted, as she always did, in his comforting touch.

Harry was surprised when he saw that the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor was world-renowned Mad-Eye Moody, but quickly took notice when he passed the jumpy Auror in the hallway and got a whiff of polyjuice when he took a swig out of his hipflask.

His first Defence class with the man two days later had confirmed his suspicions about the grizzly old man not being who he claimed and looked like he was, as Mad-Eye wouldn't perform Unforgivables even if Dumbledore himself insisted. Harry had sighed when he'd thought that, because Dumbledore was up to his tricks again. It was impossible that if _he_, Harry Uchiha; a person who had never before met Alastor Moody before in his life, could tell the Professor was an imposter that Dumbledore didn't know. He was allegedly very good friends with Moody, and one didn't _not_ notice such drastic changes in morality within their friends.

Which meant that there was another plot on the go, and that meant that he had to account for it.

His classes, just like every other year, were so boring that he took to casting glamours breakable only by the Sharingan over books from Slytherin's Library, and reading them in class. May had taken to doing the same, equally as bored, and so the two thrived quietly while avoiding detection by their 'friends', classmates, and teachers.

The next eight weeks seemed to crawl almost painfully by, but finally the announcement Harry had been waiting for came. At dinner one night Dumbledore had risen from his throne-like, grandiose chair, and gathered the attention of his students by clearing his throat. "As I explained earlier this year, we will be playing host to the Triwizard Tournament. Tomorrow Beaubatons, the magical school from France, and Durmstrang, from Norway, will arrive here at Hogwarts. Please be on your very best behaviour." As soon as he stepped down from the podium whispers broke out in troves, and Harry stifled a grin when he heard Fred and George Weasley once more bemoaning the fact that they weren't yet of age, and thus not eligible to enter.

He looked forward to seeing their attempts to try.

The arrival of the two schools, Harry had to admit, was impressive. The entire contingent of Beauxbatons students arrived in a single carriage, and Harry appreciated in full just how hard it was to compress space-time so much as to be able to fit an entire institution within a three by two meter space. Durmstrang appeared in the Black Lake; a grand, pirate-like ship emerging from below the surface of the water, and although it looked impressive Harry was sure he saw drying spells being fired off, which detracted from the overall effect. He'd then followed his schoolmates back into the Great Hall where he'd watched with a twisted expression as Beauxbatons performed some sort of 'we're so beautiful, oh look, suddenly butterflies!' dance, and Durmstrang went around blowing dragons made out of fire and looking like they had fifteen inch poles shoved rather firmly up their asses.

May had had to stifle her giggles into his robes at one point when Krum had looked around with a superior expression on his face, and Harry had let out a rather undignified snort that had several Durmstrang students glaring in his direction. Dumbledore had then lit the Goblet of Fire and drawn the age line, and Harry had stifled a grin when he saw the design of the grand chalice.

That night he snuck out of his dormitory and made his way stealthily down into the Great Hall where the Cup burned a soothing blue and bathed the room with its light, and he approached the artefact with confident strides. Dumbledore's age line did very little to deter him, and within moments he was standing right in front of the chalice with a smile on his face. He placed his hand on the surprisingly cold metal, and instantly the flames morphed from a cooling turquoise to a royal amethyst. "I, Harry Uchiha, do so command a change of parameters for this specific Tournament to be held in nineteen ninety four through to nineteen ninety five."

The flames flashed once, acknowledging its understanding and authorization, and he continued. "May Uchiha, otherwise known as May Potter, will not under any circumstance compete. You may accept her name, however she will never be chosen –so mote it be." The flames flashed brightly before sinking down to small licks around the rim, and Harry smiled. "Should May Uchiha, otherwise known as May Potter, be entered, in her stead Harry Uchiha will compete in her place. So mote it be." Another flash. "If May Uchiha, otherwise known as May Potter, is not entered, then Harry Uchiha will be chosen as champion of a fourth school, so mote it be." It flashed once more, and Harry smiled slyly before withdrawing his hand, whereupon the cup's flames changed hue back to the comforting blue.

The next day was filled with excitement and hilarity, and it was quite a sight to see nearly all of Beaubatons, Durmstrang, _and_ Hogwarts lining the Great Hall during the day to see who entered. The Weasley Twins, of course, were the ones providing the humour, and were sporting white beards that would make Dumbledore jealous after their foray past the age-line. As dinner neared excitement rose until it reached a crescendo. The food couldn't go away fast enough, and Hogwarts ended dinner prematurely simply because it sensed the lack of a want to eat, and to instead witness what was to happen afterwards. Dumbledore's speech was spectacularly composed to bring the most concentrated expectation into being within and between all the assembled students, and Harry watched as he walked towards the Goblet of Fire and held out his hand.

Gasps echoed around the hall when the flames of the goblet turned a light shade of pink, and everybody held their breaths when a piece of paper was blasted out of the cup; smouldering slightly at the edges of the parchment. "The champion for Durmstrang," Dumbledore read clearly out, "will be Victor Krum!"

Cheers rang out from the Slytherin table where the Durmstrang students had found sanctuary, and Harry watched as Victor strutted, _actually strutted,_ down the aisle and disappeared through a door that Dumbledore motioned to. Once more silence sunk into the hall; pregnant with anticipation, and another round of breaths was held when the flames turned pink once more and spat out another piece of parchment. "The champion for Beauxbatons," Dumbledore revealed, "is Fleur Delacour!"

Squeals came from Ravenclaw, and Harry looked amusedly around him as all the males gawped and, in a couple of rather hilarious cases, drooled over the Veela that made her way up onto the stage with rather exaggerated swings of her hips. He'd heard her complaining about all the attention she got earlier that day as she spoke in French to her friends, but the way she was acting now hardly backed that up. Now the silence was almost deafening, as most of the students in the hall were from Hogwarts. When the flame turned pink once more everybody leaned forwards in their seats, and then with a pfoof a piece of parchment was sent high into the air whereupon it floated serenely down to rest in Dumbledore's palm. He unfolded the parchment and Harry saw his eyes twinkle. "The champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory!"

Harry clapped politely as his fellow 'Puff was cheered up to the stage and patted on the back as girls swooned over his ecstatic smile, and Harry looked at his sister who had her face in her hands and was muttering, "Honestly, an insult to the female race," under her breath. He couldn't hear her from the distance he was at, but lip-reading did come in handy every so often.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real-" he cut himself abruptly off mid-sentence, and the entire hall looked at the once-again-reddening flames in shock.

Harry watched with the rest of the hall as the piece of parchment jetted upwards, and smiled to himself as it floated downwards. Dumbledore snatched it out of mid-air and hurriedly unfolded it so that he could read what was written, and he froze when he read the name. Everybody waited for him to speak, and when he did he said something nobody saves two had been expecting. "Harry Potter."

Harry looked around calmly as if he hadn't heard, and pretended not to see all the eyes in the room turn to him. "Harry Potter!" Dumbledore called again, this time sounding slightly angry, and Harry continued his aimless inspection of the Great Hall. Finally somebody jabbed him in the ribs, and he snapped his attention to Dumbledore who was staring right at him. "Ah… did I miss something?"

Dumbledore held up the parchment in-between his thumb and forefinger. "Harry Potter," he repeated again, and Harry frowned.

"Well now how about we try that again, and this time read what's _actually_ written on the paper."

People gaped, foreign and local alike, at the tone he was taking with the most respected wizard of their current age, and Dumbledore gritted his teeth before biting out, "Harry Uchiha."

Harry breathed out a deep sigh and smiled as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders. "Ah, yes." He stood up from where he was sitting and walked down the aisle, well aware of the blatant stares he was receiving, as well as whispers of 'cheater', and walked right through the door that all the other champions had. He arrived in a small ante-chamber where the rest of the champions and their respective supervisors were waiting, and Cedric sent him a surprised expression.

"Do they want us back out?"

Harry just chuckled and shook his head as he sat down on a chair that everybody else seemed too 'dignified' to take, and stifled a grin when he saw Dumbledore storm into the room accompanied shortly after by Snape, who also looked furious. Dumbledore approached Harry quickly, and made to hoist him up by his collar but found his wrist bend back at a rather unusual angle before he could do so. Harry watched as the man's face slowly paled, and then sent him a grin when he jumped back and wailed in pain.

"That was self-defence," he declared as he stood from the chair of his own accord, "and I don't even need _that_ to kick his ass." He turned to the shocked and clueless group in the room and smiled. "After you all left another name came out of the Goblet of Fire, and it just so happened to be me."

There was silence for several seconds before the accusations started flying. He didn't really pay too much attention until Fleur turned a sneer towards him as she pointed. "But ee iz too leetle!"

That ruffled Harry's jimmies.

«Hey, slut,» he bit out in fluent French, making both Fleur and Madam Maxime snap their heads to stare at him with slack jaws. «Perhaps if you stopped swinging that arse around all the time and got over your vanity you would realize that I just snapped the wrist of the British Ministry's Chief Warlock, or ICW's Supreme Mugwump, and aren't particularly concerned. I wouldn't piss me off any more than I already am, _little girl_. »

Fleur turned red with anger, but before she could retort Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman rushed into the room looking excited. "What a fantastic turn of events!" the latter gushed, "a _fourth_ Champion! Why, there's never before been such an upset in this tournament before!"

"No," Snape sneered at Harry, "but then again there's never before been such an arrogant, stuck-up, disrespectful-"

The Potions Professor suddenly found himself unable to speak, and glared murderously at Harry who didn't even have his wand out, and who looked completely innocent. Everybody knew that he'd done it, but there was no proof whatsoever. Harry listened to Dumbledore trying valiantly to get him out of the tournament, but to no avail. Barty Crouch knew the rules backwards, and there was no possible way to get Harry freed from the contract without him losing his magic. Harry had seen a small glint of a plan in Dumbledore's eyes when that was revealed, and rolled his eyes. Eventually Harry had gotten fed up of the murmurs from the Great Hall and walked out of the ante-chamber, leaving everybody confused behind him.

The entire population of students and staff alike silenced at his appearance, and he drew his wand before clearing his throat. "I, Harry Uchiha, do swear on my life, my magic, and my eternal soul that I did not put my name in the Goblet of Fire, nor did I ask anybody to do so for me – so mote it be." A flash of light answered his sworn oath, and Harry felt the magic scouring him for any lies. It found none, and so left him alive and complete, and Harry fired off a couple of firework spells to prove that he still had his magic – though it was redundant as he was still standing alive. "Stop trying to trick us Potter!" came a yell from Gryffindor, and Harry stared boredly at Ron, but was surprised when the normally-dimwitted idiot actually came up with a good point. "Your name isn't Uchiha! You gave that up when you went back to the Potters!"

Harry rolled his eyes and lifted his wand once more, noting that Dumbledore and the rest of the Triwizard group in the ante-chamber had emerged to see just what on Earth Harry was doing. "I, Harry _James Potter_, do so swear on my life, magic, and eternal soul that I did not enter my name into the Goblet of Fire nor did I ask anybody to do it for me – so mote it be."

Absolutely _nothing_ happened, and Harry saw Dumbledore pale while Ron looked confused. "It did nothing," he explained as he walked down to where he had been seated before the cup had spat his name out, "because I am _not_ Harry James Potter. I'm Harry Itachi Uchiha, and you'd all do well to completely disregard all the apologies I made to the Potters in the Prophet a couple of years back. I was coerced into giving them."

A buzz of gossip roared across the hall almost like a lion's roar, and Harry looked over at Dumbledore as he sat down in-between a gobsmacked Justin and Ernie. The old man looked completely appalled, and after a moment furiously frustrated. He managed to reign in that emotion so quickly that it appeared as a millisecond long shift in expression, but Harry caught it, as did May.

"Thank you, Mister Uchiha," Harry picked up the slight hiss the man added to the 'Misssster' and thought it made him sound rather cool, "for clearing that up for us. That proves without a doubt that you did not enter." Oh Harry was simply basking in the bitterness hidden behind civility. With one last, burning look he turned his attention back to the students; his voice tight with repressed emotion. "The First Task will be held on the 24th of November, and both yourselves and your families are more than welcome to attend, in fact we encourage them to. Now after such a big day you must all be tired, so off with you!"

His grandfatherly smile faltered for a moment when Harry met his eyes with a smirk, but before the old man could think about asking for a meeting Harry had followed the huge crowds out of the great doors and into the foyer beyond. May joined him as he walked towards their common room and nudged him in the side with a grin. "You enjoyed that far, far too much."

"He deserved it," Harry fired back, matching her expression, "and oh it was so wonderful. And that French bint is going to be a problem, I just know it."

"The Veela?"

"Who else?"

She nodded, and then narrowed her eyes at him. "And-"

"May, you are infinitely more beautiful than she is." Her cheeks coloured with pleasure and excitement at the huskiness in her brother's tone, and before she knew it they were behind a tapestry. She shivered at he ran his hands through her hair, still cut short, and leaned towards his touch when he buried his hands deeper and massaged her scalp; mewing quietly. "It takes one hell of a woman to pull off the way you look, May," he murmured; his lips mere centimetres from hers. "Fleur may be a Veela, but you're _mine_," she shuddered at the dark, possessive tone he was taking with her, "and that matters more than anything. Her beauty is mirrored by hundreds of her kind, and truly she is rather generic. The only reason she is so 'attractive' is because of her magical allure. You however…" he trailed his hand down the side of her face, pausing slightly at her eyes, "your eyes are two of a kind – and they match mine exactly, because they used to belong to identical twins. There is not another pair with the same shade as ours in the entire world. And your hair? You know precisely just how much I love your hair."

She lifted her own hand, shaking from the intensity between them, and ran her fingers through his hair with a smile. "As much as I love yours?"

He chuckled quietly and kissed her softly on the lips, and she draped her arms around his neck before locking her hands at the base; pulling him closer as he did the same with her delightfully slender waist. She gasped as he nipped playfully at her bottom lip, and stared at him when he pulled away nearly a minute later; her forehead resting against his. "I love you May, and nothing is going to change that. I'm not a man that can love two people, so you have no need to worry about any other woman. If I'm staring at one, chances are I'm studying their mannerisms, not ogling their assets – because no matter what yours are far more impressive."

He emphasized his words by pressing himself tight against her; mashing her chest against his, and she blushed bright red as she smiled brilliantly up at him. "Sorry." He smiled before releasing her and peeking out the edge of the tapestry, and with a small jerk both of them were once more walking down the corridor with nobody but them any the wiser.

Harry hadn't been at all wrong in his predictions of trouble. Mid-way through breakfast the very next day Harry had noticed a lack of conversation from around him, and looked around to see the reason why. It was rather obvious when he found every male within immediate vicinity drooling as Fleur leaned right in front of him, exposing her entire torso to his eyes, to grab a plate of pancakes. "Excuse me Strumpet," he interrupted, and she froze; the smirk on her face disappearing to be replaced with shock, "but those pancakes were made for the _Hufflepuff_ table. Moreover, using your rather pitiful blast of allure to enthral all my fellow classmates is extremely rude and makes you come across as a scarlet woman." She blushed with mixed parts embarrassment and anger, but paled in astonishment when Harry waved his hand and severed the allure's connections with his fellow males, while at the same time giving them temporary immunity against it.

Fleur watched as awareness spread back into the faces of the teens she had been manipulating and jerked back when she saw a flurry of glares being aimed at her when they realized what she'd been doing. "Come back," Harry told her as he dished up a pancake and drizzled maple syrup on it, "when your allure is something like a Ningyo's… though even that fails to get me in the slightest bothered."

She stared at him, agape, and for the first time in years found herself speechless as she walked dejectedly back to her table. "Thanks for that Harry," whispered Justin, "wouldn't have known what the hell was going on if you hadn't done whatever you did."

He smiled and shook his head, "No problem, just stopping a Jezebel from getting her way." He made sure to say that rather loudly, and heard a round of gasps from the Beauxbatons students sitting around Fleur, who was at that moment smoking slightly as her Veela form tried to break through. Harry smirked to himself, not even bothering to turn around. The three weeks leading up to the First Task were exciting for Harry, because he finally had something of a challenge on his hands. It had taken a matter of seconds to extort from the Flamels that the first task was dragons, and since then he and his sister had been delving into all sorts of arcane tomes in order to discover the most amazingly flamboyant piece, or string, of magic that would shock everybody into awe.

It had to fulfil all criteria they had outlined, and that criteria consisted of three checkpoints.

One: the spell, or spells, had to demonstrate magical capacity equal to a high battle mage;

Two: the spell, or spells, had to be tearing at the edges of illegal;

And finally Three: the spell or spells had to keep the dragon alive and reasonably unharmed.

The reasoning for the criteria was quite simple. Harry was no longer hiding, and Dumbledore fully well knew that. Dumbledore also knew that the power required to get through all the memory modifications was awe-inspiring to the normal magical, and so Harry no longer had to pretend to be weak. The final condition was because Harry quite liked dragons. He considered them magnificent creatures that were wrongly imprisoned and misunderstood, and killing one would be a stain on his honour as an Uchiha.

Perhaps the most interesting thing that happened during the three weeks was the weighing of the wands, where Rita Skeeter was present.

As well as James Potter in his 'capacity as an Auror'.

Ollivander had been rather impressed with the wands of the other competitors, at least until Harry handed his wand to the old man. Immediately a whirlwind of power blasted through the room, making several people waver on their feet, and the wand maker had looked at the pure black wand with awe. "Mister Uchiha," he breathed lowly, "the composition of this wand is… incomprehensible. I can't even tell what the core is with the magical interference and harmonics." He had turned to him with wide, hopeful eyes. "Would you give an old man the honour of knowing who the maker of this wand is, and what it is made of?" Harry had smiled, well aware that everybody was paying close attention.

"Mister Ollivander, for a fellow wand maker I would be delighted."

Silence for several seconds, and then a beaming grin from the man. "You created this wand, didn't you? The aura around it makes sense now; I can most certainly feel the resonation it has with your magic." Snape's snarky comment of 'an arrogant brat like Potter couldn't make a wand to save himself' had caught quite promptly in his throat, and he'd turned green with the thought that his nemesis' son had such talent. Dumbledore, conversely, looked even more disturbed at the revelation.

Harry nodded to Ollivander's question. "Correct. I crafted the wand from my own femur bone that was removed after it was necrotized by Nudu venom."

"My Lord," gasped the wand maker with shock, "such a thing… how are you still alive?"

Harry grinned and leaned on the stone wall as Ollivander fingered his wand reverently. "A Royal Phoenix appeared while I was dying," he revealed, much to the complete astonishment of all those present, "and cried into my wound and my mouth – to counter the venom and toxic breath respectively. Of course the tears only stopped the venom from spreading; it was still present within the bone, and thus it had to be removed and a new one grown."

"Your ego is incredible," Snape had finally spat, at least until Ollivander gave thoughtful hum and a nod.

"Yes, yes I can see how that would work," he murmured under his breath, though everybody was paying rapt attention to his words. "A normal phoenix wouldn't have been sufficient for the healing, would it Mister Uchiha?"

Harry shook his head, ignoring everybody else saves the wand maker in front of him. In his mind such a conversation was only worthy to be delivered directly to a fellow craftsman. "No. The venom was too far spread for a normal phoenix to heal me in time."

"And the core?"

"Cores," Harry corrected with a smile, and Ollivander's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Multiple cores? I've never heard of such a thing working before, and I've attempted the feat with all of the materials I have!"

"Well the 'wood' was neutral due to the balance between light and dark from the Nudu and Royal Phoenix, and thus the cores had to be similarly 'grey'. The same Royal Phoenix donated a tail feather to my core, and during my travels I obtained the tear of a Ningyo in Japan," Harry smirked at Fleur's furious red face at the subtle affront, "the fang of an Akki," Dumbledore's eyes widened, "and finally the hair of a Grand Elf soaked in Unicorn Blood, freely given."

"Impossible-"

Snape was once again cut off mid-rant by the old wand maker, who had an almost maniacal grin on his face as he peered at the wand and nodded. "Oh my, yes, I see now! Oh what a beautiful composition! And it's perfectly grey; perfectly suited for all magics… Mister Uchiha, you have my complete and utter respect – and I would ask that you call me Garret from now on."

Harry smiled and ignored the shocked expressions all around, as well as Rita furiously scribbling away. He bowed slightly as he took his wand back, just as Ollivander was doing as he returned it. "Only if you call me Harry, Garret."

Fleur, who was the last to have her wand weighed, looked sour at the lack of interest Ollivander showed in her own wand; not even commenting on the Veela hair core saves to describe its composition. She had been thoroughly outshone by Harry Uchiha.

Again.

The moment Rita tried to drag Harry away for a private interview once the ceremony was over James had forcefully stopped her, stating that a minor must be accompanied by a caregiver to actually give an interview. It was there that Harry had started having fun.

"You, James, are not my caregiver."

James had sent him a stiff smile before patting him on the back, "Hey come on Harry, stop playing around."

Harry had moved the hand from his person with a look of disgust. "James, shall I bring out what happened in Dumbledore's office?" Snape, Dumbledore, and James immediately froze with terror, and Harry looked at all three of them before smirking. "I thought not." He had nodded his assent to Rita, and the moment they were alone in the broom closet Harry erected a veritable fortress of privacy spells.

"Harry," she grinned as she sat down, "it's been a while."

"Since you saw the real me?" he questioned with a sly grin before sitting himself, "Yes, yes it has."

She was silent for a moment; a word Harry had often considered oxymoronic with Rita Skeeter, but her following words shocked him beyond belief. "Harry, I must apologize for what I've done. When you were abandoned in Knockturn I was the one who wrote the article supporting the Potters for their actions. I was the one that turned the tide of public opinion, and in the process decried muggle and squib rights. And I also made the Potters' lives far, far kinder than they should have been. I won't lie and say that I don't enjoy humiliating people publically, or being in the spotlight, but I will say that over the past years I've been on your payroll… well I discovered journalism all over again. For that I thank you, and I am in your debt."

To say Harry was surprised was a rather fantastic understatement. "Ah… wow Rita…"

"But enough soppy stuff," she huffed, a flustered smile on her face, "give me a story!"

And a story he did give, as well as instructions on how to portray it. Dumbledore was painted as incompetent due to the fact that his protections clearly hadn't worked, and Harry was portrayed as a victim of manipulations unknown who, despite the fact he was three years younger than his champion counterparts, was going bravely forwards to make his family proud – and it was made blatantly clear that the Potters, sans May, he did not consider his family.

Finally, after weeks of waiting, the day of the First Task arrived. Students of all ages, as well as visiting families, murmured with excitement about the entertainment to come; speculating who would win, and who had the best chances of getting killed. "That's a bit grim," Harry grumbled as he walked past a group of Ravenclaws talking about how he was going to get crushed by whatever the challenge was.

May rolled her eyes up at him, the green in her irises glittering with specs of excitement. "Oh stop your winging," she groused with a grin, "you're going to blow them out of the water. They don't know what my big brother can do."

Harry felt a shiver run through him at her sultry tone, and gripped her hand tighter for a moment before letting his hand unclasp from hers as they emerged into the veritable throng of people making their way to the stands that had been erected in the distance. Just before the Champions' Tent May pulled him into the shadows and kissed him deeply; pushing her tongue forcefully into his mouth and moaning with mixed parts passion, worry, and pleasure. They both broke hurriedly away when there was a cracking sound, followed by a flash of light, and Harry turned around to see Rita and her cameraman gaping at them. Harry, as calm as could be, walked over to the woman, picked up her parchment and quill which she had dropped, and kindly handed them back with a smile before patting her on the back. "Not quite time for _that_ to come out yet Rita… but you'll have your story soon enough."

On the way past the cameraman he pulled the already-developed picture from the machine, and then walked back to May before slipping it into her inside pocket; giving her right breast a soft squeeze as he did so – eliciting a small moan from her. "I love you."

She smiled up at him and pecked his nose with a beaming smile. "And I love you." He embraced her one last time before breaking away and heading towards the tent with Rita following still looking stunned a few steps behind. He entered the tent and quickly shed his outer robe, and received appalled expressions from everybody there at the formal clothes he was wearing. It looked more as if he was going to a ball than facing an unknown danger, and Harry grinned before sitting down and leaning back in a relaxed pose. Ludo Bagman rushed into the tent a moment later, and he too gave pause when he saw Harry looking as if he was merely preparing for a formal dinner.

"Ah… r-right then. My name is Ludo Bagman; the Department Head of Magical Games and Sports. Today your challenge is going to be facing a dragon." Harry saw Cedric pale and hoped he'd taken his whispered warning about the challenge to heart just a week previous. "Your objective is to get past the dragon and retrieve a golden egg that is hidden amongst its other eggs. Points will be deducted if the real eggs are broken." He clapped his hands excitedly and withdrew a small draw-string pouch from within the folds of his robe. "Now, to pick what dragon you get to face! Ladies first."

Harry watched as Fleur shakily put her hand into the bag and wince as she withdrew a model Welsh Green with a number one around its neck. Harry could see that she was valiantly trying to cease her nervous shudders, but gave a small smirk when she failed. Krum quickly stepped forwards and dug his hand deep into the bag, and with a stoic face pulled out a Chinese Fireball with a number three tied to its neck. Harry was content to let Cedric go first, and nodded with a smile when the 'Puff sent him a questioning look. The popular teen paled when he withdrew a bluish-grey Swedish Short-Snout, but Harry nodded his approval when the seventh-year took a deep breath and gathered him.

Bagman approached Harry looking almost apologetic, and Harry narrowed his eyes when he felt a compulsion charm on the bag. He unhurriedly placed his hand into the darkness, and rolled his eyes when the model within tried to bake his hand. He wandlessly electrocuted it when he pulled it out, and it emerged from the fabric looking rather contrite. Gasps rolled around the room when they saw the midnight-black scales and red eyes, and Harry stared down at it for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh and sitting back in his chair; letting the Dragon fly around his head as he carelessly conjured a number of obstacles into its flight path, which it seemed to enjoy dodging around.

"T-That's a Black Ragefang!"

"Yeah," Harry replied to Cedric's incredulity with a complete lack of worry, "funny how I just happen to get the most dangerous Dragon alive, isn't it?"

"Ee is juz putting on an air of confidenze becauz ee knowz ee is going to die," Fleur snapped, and Harry turned his amused eyes towards her as his dragon model slammed into a concrete wall erected in its path, and fell in a rather undignified manner into his lap before screeching angrily up at him for conjuring it too fast.

"Uhuh." She looked even angrier at his lack of reaction, and huffed before jumping with fright when the canon went off. "Aw, zis leetle girl iz afraid," Harry taunted with a grin, and Fleur sent him a murderous glare.

"Well," Bagman chuckled uneasily at the tension within the tent, "it seems as though the First Task has begun. Miss Delacour, would you proceed into the field?"

She nodded sharply, holding her shaking hands to her side to still them, and walked out with her head held high and a superior look on her face. Harry stifled a chuckle when, in the midst of all the applause and support five minutes after she started there was a round of pained "Ooooohhhh"s from the crowd. When she stumbled back into the tent with a burned arm Harry charmed his model dragon to burst into laughter, and if looks could kill her glare could have wiped out an army.

Cedric went next, and although his time was slightly longer that Fleur's he only came out with a burned robe. Harry's model dragon, at this point perched on the top of his head, burst into raucous applause and whistled in an entirely un-dragonlike manner at the entrance of the puffing 'Puff, and Cedric sent Harry an exasperated but thankful grin and shake of his head.

Victor strutted out of the tent and returned with the golden egg in his arms looking like he'd caught the figurative snitch, though his face was red and his hair was plastered to his scalp with sweat. He heard Ludo murmur that if he hadn't crushed all the eggs it would have been better, and smirked at something to gloat about later. "Harry," Ludo called from where he stood, and the young man stood up and stretched before petting his new-pet dragon on the head while adding several layers of defensive wards and charming it with some rather painful offensive capabilities. He wouldn't put it past Fleur to attack the small beast while he was competing, and he planned on giving it to his sister as a memento.

He walked confidently out of the tent and emerged into the sunlight, and the entire stadium silenced when they saw how he was dressed. The silence only deepened when the Dragon handlers, nearly four times as many as had been required for all the other dragons, moved his opponent out of the forest. The huge dragon towered at the very least three times higher than most Hungarian Horntails, and its red eyes glinted with a hidden intelligence that all other dragons lacked. Its fire was able to create diamond with the heat and resultant pressure, but what made it so incredibly dangerous was not its size, nor its fire.

It was the fact that it could _think_.

The Black Ragefang roared as it found itself tethered to twenty points in comparison to the four that all the other competitors' dragons had had, and Harry stared at it with a small chuckle. Heads in the crowd were turning to look incredulously at the judges' platform, or more specifically the garishly robed Dumbledore sitting within, and the man himself was studiously ignoring the shock and disbelief aimed in his direction. Harry saw May on the far stands, and saw her hands over her mouth in horror. They had planned on a grey-arts spell to freeze his dragon, but such a spell wouldn't even slow the beast roaring murderously in the least.

Harry sighed and stepped forward, and everybody followed his movements with undisguised awe and terror – the former because he looked completely composed, and the latter because many thought that was because he was resigned to his fate. The dragon whipped its head around to look at him; its crimson eyes burning deep into his emerald, and it roared directly at him before taking a step forwards; the weight of the movement shaking the stands violently. Harry took in a deep breath before raising his wand, and the Dragon stopped to stare at him with a glint of superiority and amusement in its eyes.

With a pulse of energy Harry's Sharingan released itself, and he made no move to hide the furiously spinning iris. He was too far away from the crowd for them to see anything but a darkening of his eyes, and so he stared deep into the Dragon's orbs – which were now looking confused and a hint intrigued.

"Susanoo."

There was only silence for a moment, as even nature seemed to freeze, and then a slow wind begun to whisk up dust at Harry's feet. With a sudden rush that small breeze turned into an impossible gale, and within the _visible_ strings of air red begun to intermix. The red thickened until the white trails of air were a deep crimson, and then, with a wave of power so potent that nearly half the crowd fell unconscious, the red burst outwards and formed a huge, towering deity that stood behind Harry; its bloody crimson Sharingan eyes burning into the terrified red of the dragon. The power emanating from the summon was suffocating, and Harry watched as the most ferocious dragon in the world, and ever known to wizarding kind, bowed down in submission to the power that pressed down upon it. Harry pulled the power back into himself as soon as he saw the magnificent beast submit, and within seconds all that was left was dust settling back to the ground.

Not a single person moved or breathed as Harry calmly walked forwards to the dragon's bowed head, and he felt the entire beast tense when he laid his hand on its snout; its eyes squeezed closed in fright. He could feel the minute shaking of the dragon underneath his fingertips, and felt terrible for humiliating it so in front of a crowd. "I am not here to hurt you, Grand Dragon," he murmured so that only it could hear, and its eyes shot open in shock – eliciting squeals of shock and yells of alarm from the crowd before everything once more fell into complete stillness. "You are meant to be free, and so you shall be again. I would not order you allegiance, but could I ask it of you?"

The beast stared at him with wonder before blinking once, and Harry smiled warmly before letting his hand drop. He waved his wand in a wide arch, and more screams joined the resulting terrified sounds of the crowd when the dragon's bindings snapped as if mere pieces of paper, before dissolving until even the collar had faded from existence around the Dragons neck. Harry only came up to the top of the dragon's claws when it was standing, but he patted the scales there anyways and called up to it, "Go on, and find peace in the embrace of freedom!"

With a roar that burst several eardrums the beast blasted off, leaving a miniature sandstorm behind at the dust its sudden acceleration kicked up. Harry smiled as he heard a whisper of _'Thank you my friend_' echo in his mind, and walked through the dust to pick up the egg and walk back to where he had started. When the dust settled to reveal him standing calmly and without a speck of dirt on his impeccable attire there was silence…

But with a sudden ferocity deafening cheers of approval and amazement roared into being; equalling even the parting screech from the dragon in volume. Harry grinned widely and bowed as a showman would to his crowd, and the applause increased until everybody was on their feet – everybody except Dumbledore. Even the Slytherins were screaming and yelling with support, and Harry felt his heart lift and pride fill him. He looked to the judges table, and every single one of them bar a certain warlock immediately fired off tens, still clapping wildly themselves. I took nearly ten seconds for people to realize that Dumbledore still had yet to vote, and the applause died down until every single person was glaring at the man. It was clear to them all that he had pulled strings to get the Black Ragefang pitted against Harry, and they were demanding retribution. Finally, with a look of immense distaste, Dumbledore fired up his own ten, and the crowd once more roared their approval.

Harry grinned widely before bowing once more to the crowd, and entered the Champions' Tent to see stares of complete shock and confusion on the faces of his fellow competitors, as they had not been allowed to watch. Fleur looked incredulous and appalled at the still-raging applause and cheers of "Harry! Harry! Harry!", while Victor Krum looked as if he was about to be ill at being outshone. Cedric was simply wide eyed as he looked the unruffled Harry over, and was wondering just what on Earth he'd done to receive such applause. Everybody had felt the sledge-hammer-like wave of magical power, but nobody inside the Tent yet knew what had caused it. Harry grinned as he walked over to his smug-looking dragon who had blood on its claws, and took a glance at Fleur; grinning even wider when he saw deep lacerations down her cheek.

"What the bloody hell happened out there?" mumbled Cedric after a moment.

Before Harry could answer a group of people rushed into the tent, and Harry found himself immediately tackled by his sister. He laughed as he swung her around, and she pulled away from his chest to beam up at him. "That was incredible!" she shrieked, and Rita stepped forwards from the murmuring group, getting in front of a rather affronted Hermione and Ron.

"Mister Uchiha," she gushed genuinely, "that… that was like nothing I've ever seen! How on Earth did you tame a Black Ragefang?"

Fleur's face paled as she looked at Harry, while everybody else who hadn't seen his performance openly gaped. "Well Rita, I'm afraid that's a family secret," he grinned winningly; his arm still draped platonically over his sister's shoulders, "and my fantastic sister here helped me with all the research that went into getting the full forty five points."

"I got forty two points," puffed Victor, and Harry rolled his eyes until Rita cleared her throat and sent him a sly wink.

"Actually Mister Potter, by majority vote of the judges' panel they agreed to award you an extra five points because of your performance." The previously-smug Victor looked as if he had just been kicked in the stones, and Harry's lips tightened as he forced himself not to laugh. "It was clear to everybody that the task was heavily biased against you, and so for defeating a beast that normally takes nearly fifty war-mages… well they rightly gave you a reward. Do you have any comments about why you released the dragon?"

More slack jaws, and Harry sent Rita a sad smile, which was caught by the cameraman. "Black Ragefangs are the most intelligent of all dragons, and the only reason they are withheld freedom is because of their immense capabilities. They are the most intelligent of all the breeds of dragon, and have a logical consciousness rather than simple instincts, and that scares people… but they just want to live their lives freely in the skies. I communicated with… well I shan't utter her name as that would give others power over her, but I communicated with her and through the tenuous and fleeting mental connection we shared I could tell her intentions. She will enjoy a life of solitude until she can have a family, and will live off non-intelligent life rather than terrorizing humans."

"A truly noble act," Rita agreed with an approving smile as she scribbled away on her parchment. "Is there anything more you wish to say?"

Harry thought for a moment, but then shook his head as he hugged May closer to his side for a moment. "Just so long as May is given the credit due. There were a lot of late nights in preparation for this task."

"I helped too!" came a vehement protest from behind Rita, and Harry rolled his eyes before shaking his head to the reporter. Rita smiled and nodded back, and then stood aside to the side of the tent after one last, "Congratulations again Harry!"

Hermione and Ron immediately moved forwards, and Hermione had her hands on her hips. "Why did you say it was May that helped you? I helped you way more!"

She took a step back when she caught the cold look Harry was sending her. "Firstly, no you did not: you gave me two books on sixth year spells and told me to stop being so dense. May stayed up with me to the early hours of the morning researching Master level spells." Hermione looked disbelieving, and Harry raised an eyebrow at her. "Or do you think what I did out there is taught in the Hogwarts curriculum?" She snapped her lips closed. "And two, Miss Granger, I am officially breaking off our friendship. I only allowed you to think you were a friend because if I didn't Dumbledore would get all suspicious, and since you were his spy…" he trailed off leaving the end of his sentence unsaid, and Hermione glared at him before storming off out of the tent with humiliated tears in her eyes.

"Mate, she's bloody mental that one! Now we don't have to listen to her-"

"Ronald?" Harry interrupted, "Consider this my official breaking of our 'friendship'." With a wave of his wand, purely for show, Harry banished him out of the tent.

The next people come to visit were a group of aurors and Madam Bones, and Harry raised an eyebrow when the lead Auror held out magic inhibiting cuffs. "Mister Uchiha, you are charged with use of Black Magic, and are to be escorted immediately to Azkaban for life."

Harry coughed in shock and stared at Madam Bones with wide eyes. "I'm sorry… you what?"

"I would rather not do this at all, Mister Uchiha, but I have been ordered to do this by a majority vote of the Wizengamot in an emergency session." Harry narrowed his eyes and peeked out a hole in the tent, and growled when he saw Dumbledore notably absent.

"Rita, you'd better be getting this," he grumbled, and he got a furious nod from the woman scribbling away in the corner with wide eyes. Turning his attention back to the stern-woman he shook his head. "I will not be going to Azkaban, Madam Bones."

All of the aurors tensed, and Amelia's wand was suddenly in her hand. "Don't make this hard on yourself kid," warned one of the aurors, and Harry chuckled before waving his hands dismissively.

"No no, you misunderstand. I'm not going to _resist_, I'm just not going to go. Madam Bones, would you please run your standard status test on me?" The woman looked sceptical, wondering why he would want her to do such a thing, and Harry sent her a reassuring smile, still looking not at all worried. "Nothing underhanded, I swear." She narrowed her eyes but waved her wand after a moment, and proceeded to gape along with the rest of the aurors when the result popped up above her wand.

"C-Complete Immunity?"

Harry grinned and nodded. "Yeah, as in I could murder somebody right now in cold blood and you wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. So you can put those cuffs away," he said to the Auror who had been holding them out. They disappeared so fast even Harry barely saw it happen.

"My… apologies Mister Uchiha," murmured the shocked DMLE head, and Harry waved his hand good-naturedly with a smile.

"Not your fault, Madam Bones," he assured her warmly, "the blame can solely be blamed on people scared of my power. Might I correctly assume that Fudge also gave his vote in favour?" She nodded, forgetting for a moment that she wasn't supposed to reveal such sensitive information, and Harry smiled over at Rita. "You know what I want. By tomorrow lunch time I want the public out for Fudge's blood. Put in an exemplary support piece from myself nominating Amelia for Minister as well."

"Everybody," came a new voice filled with sadness as he strode into the room and unseeingly past Harry, May, and the aurors, "I am so very sorry you had to experience Harry Potter's arrest. The magic he employed was classified as Black Magic, and thus he was a danger to everybody around him. He will be executed sometime in the next two months."

Harry cleared his throat loudly, and Dumbledore turned around to console whoever seemed confused. When he saw Harry standing there not cuffed, and the aurors looking rather un-hostile towards him, he froze stock-still and paled. "Albus," Harry questioned with a dangerous grin, "has it ever occurred to you to just leave me be?"

The resulting stumbling explanation from the man showed that no, he in fact hadn't considered doing so, and eventually he had left, flustered and nearly white in colour; fleeing the tent. Harry had bade Amelia and her team of aurors a safe trip back to the Ministry, and then turned around before smiling at his fellow competitors and making for the tent exit. "Cheerio."

After a three-hour long stop by the Room of Requirement in which May and Harry enjoyed pleasuring each other, Harry found himself crashing into his bed with a grin on his face. "Game on, Dumbledore, game on."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Just thought you might want to know, the tango scene near the end was written to the song "Asi se baila el" by Veronica Verdier.**

Harry Uchiha had been keeping a very careful eye on Albus Dumbledore and other such political entities ever since the day in the tent, and had found them to be very, very quiet, which he was happy about. Most people would be suspicious, but Harry knew that no action had been taken because they were all too scared to lose what little power they already had.

Amelia had been voted in as Minister of Magic two days after Rita's article had hit the streets, and with Harry's massive financial reserves had gotten the DMLE back to wartime capacity and training, just as the youth had suggested. Harry was slowly building himself a base of allies with whom he would stand, and whom would stand by him, and already had quite a following. With the added alliances of the House of Bones, and by extension the British Minister of Magic, and Ashwyn, the Black Ragefang, he had allies in nearly every country in the entire world. The Ministers of Germany, America, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, and even Russia were on his side, and he had the backing of almost the entirety of the ICW which held positions of power internationally.

He wasn't surprised Dumbledore was keeping his head down.

He was currently sitting in Transfiguration randomly cycling an animated cactus through a series of complicated acrobatic manoeuvres, and McGonagall was watching with rapt attention while assigning him points every few minutes when he performed an exceptionally complex sequence. Hermione was fuming across the other side of the room and trying to murder him with her glares, but Harry simply smirked at her to incite her rage further. He'd been trying to get her to snap for weeks, ever since he'd thrown her out from his circle of friends, in fact, but he hadn't yet managed. He doubted he ever would; the only times he saw her were in class, and she wouldn't dare risk the wrath of an authority figure if she attacked him.

Just before everybody left however, McGonagall stood up and smiled at the assembled fourth year students. "I do have an announcement to make before you move onto your next class however. It is traditional that when the Triwizard Tournament occurs so too does a Yule Ball. As fourth years you are all permitted to attend, though do be aware that you may only invite students at maximum one year below you as your partners. The ball will be held December the 25th at eight o'clock until midnight." She looked around to make sure that everybody had the message, and upon finding understanding nods smiled and waved her hand to dismiss them. "That's all I have to say, but Mister Uchiha, could I have a word in private?"

May nodded to him as she passed, signalling that she would wait outside, and he smiled back before walking to the front of the room where McGonagall was waiting. Once everybody had left she cocked her head to the side slightly. "With your mysterious contacts I assume you already know, but you are required to open the dance." He smiled and nodded, and McGonagall shook her head with a small smile. "I assumed as much. Have you found a partner? I've noticed that your circle of friends is quite limited, with only Misters Macmillan, Finch-Fletchley, and your twin being constant company."

Harry smiled at her and nodded his head. "That is true, Professor, however your concern, while appreciated, is unfounded. I already knew precisely who I am going to ask to the Ball, and I have no doubt that she will accept." He sent her a sly grin as he began walking towards the door, and he heard a groan escape the Scotswoman's lips.

"I've seen that look before," she murmured worriedly, and Harry laughed.

"Prepare to be shocked," he warned her before leaving the room, and he was sure he heard her cuss under her breath.

May smiled at him from where she was leaning against the stone wall, and jerked her bodyweight so that she was standing straight once more; easily falling into step with him. "Well?"

"I think I might ask Fleur," he mused, not trying in the least to hide his teasing smile, and he received a sharp jab and bark of laughter for his efforts. "McGonagall just informed be that as a champion I am obliged to open the dance. Now all I need is a beautiful young woman to accompany me and I'm all set."

"Any ideas?" she asked, playing along with a smile, and he hummed with a grin on his face.

"I don't know… any suggestions?"

"Millicent Bulstrode," she fired back without hesitation, and Harry tripped, eliciting a round of giggles from his sister. He sent her a mock glare, and she whistled innocently. "Pansy Par-"

"You finish that sentence," he warned, "and there'll be no foot massages for a week."

She immediately snapped her lips firmly shut; nothing was worth missing out on Harry's heavenly massage sessions – especially as she was on her period. With a blur of motion she found herself pulled into an empty classroom, and she smiled coyly up at her brother who was pinning her to the wall. "You're rather forward," she commented, laughter twinkling in her eyes, and he ground his knee into her, making her knees collapse and forcing her to lean on him for support as she turned bright red. "You know how to ask a woman to a date," she panted lightly, and she felt his chuckle rumble deep in his chest.

"Will you, May Uchiha, my beautiful young sister, be my date to the Yule Ball?"

She smiled but gasped when he reached down and begun rubbing her steadily through her skirt, and leaned more heavily against him. "Keep doing that and I'll tell you."

A group of first years were walking past an empty classroom on their way to Potions when they heard a loud scream of, "YES HARRY! OH GOD YES!" and they immediately sprinted back to their Head of House's office where they shivered with fear, scared out of their wits, and reported what they had heard.

Minerva McGonagall rubbed her eyes as she tried to console the poor first years that had heard the scream of ecstasy from whomever Harry had asked to the ball, and from the sounds of it a little bit more than that as well, and cursed him for being so much like his ex-father.

The two Uchiha stumbled out of the classroom a minute later, May looking glassy-eyed and very, very ruffled, and Harry looking like the proverbial cat that got the canary; his hair mussed and his lips just as swollen as his sister's. By the time they arrived at Charms a few spells had taken care of their dishevelled appearances, and Flitwick greeted his favourite students without a word of reprimand about their lateness; they were years ahead of where the rest of the class was anyways.

Ronald Weasley had the gall to ask May to the Ball, and to try and force himself on her when she declined, and found himself with a broken jaw for his trouble. Cedric had the decency to approach Harry first to ask his permission, but the green-eyed Uchiha had warned him that May already had a partner, and the two were very much in love. Cedric had taken the news well, and had thanked Harry warmly for saving him from the embarrassment of rejection. The last he'd heard, the 'Puff had asked Cho Chang, and after several days Harry had seen the two looking very comfortable together – and as rumour had it, dating. Several other males had approached May to ask her for her company at the Ball, and she had respectfully declined all of them saves Victor Krum, who by the end of the 'conversation' had a broken leg and a rather compacted pair of testicles.

May wasn't the only one who had gained the attention of the opposite sex; Harry was swamped with women asking to go with them to the ball from dawn 'till dusk, and in several cases through being ambushed by groups of giggling girls in the halls. He had declined the nicer, genuine women gracefully, though had gotten rather mad when some girls who hadn't the faintest training in Occlumency broadcasted their thoughts about snagging his money and then divorcing him for half of it while asking him out. They had received a rather frightening 'no', and had last been seen fleeing the young man in tears.

The night before the Ball Harry had snuck into his sister's room at one in the morning and woken her up. "May, come on now I've got a surprise for you!"

She gingerly cracked open her eyes and smiled when she saw Harry leaning over her with a smile on his face. She'd become used to his late-night and early-morning visits to her bed, and stretched upwards to trace his lightly stubbled cheek with her fingers. "What kind of surprise?"

"Get dressed and follow me," he grinned, and she shook her head with a chuckle before sitting up. Harry, as he always did, gave her the privacy to change, and took her hand with a warm smile when she walked out of the door. They followed the familiar path through the One-Eyed-Witch passage, and May hugged herself lovingly to Harry the moment she felt the wards disappear. Within seconds she felt herself touch down on solid ground once more, and looked around with wide eyes when she saw the magical alley they were now standing in. Fluent French flowed smoothly in conversations around them as the nightlife thrived, in harsh contrast to Britain where at night only danger lurked, and Harry gripped her hand tighter before leading her into the throngs of people.

She'd never been overseas saves to the ICW, and experiencing such a huge culture difference was amazing for her. Her eyes were wide with amazement and excitement, and Harry was in no hurry to get to their final destination. The moment he'd seen her staring wistfully into a jeweller's shop he'd simply laughed and dragged her inside, and after she'd gotten over his unexpected offer to pay for whatever she wanted she had become even more animated. Unlike other girls who would have taken full advantage of Harry's generosity May only brought the things she truly felt a connection to, and after nearly an hour had only gotten Harry to buy a beautiful white-gold bracelet, which Harry had managed to hide the price tag of when he saw her eyeing it, her own trunk almost identical to his real one, and an International Duelling grade wand holster.

They finally came to the more exclusive part of the alley where the crowds thinned and only very wealthy and well-dressed people were wandering, though they didn't once get disapproving looks for their presence in the considerably more elite section – in fact they got knowing smiles from the couples that walked by them. They eventually came to a small store with a beautifully elegant 'M' on the glass, and May gawped when they stopped and Harry knocked at the door. "Soleil Molyneux?" she hissed with complete shock, and he stifled a grin before smiling when the door opened and an elderly man appeared.

"Ah! Monsieur Uchiha and… vell, zis is a surprize, non?" He put his finger over his lips after a moment and sent the grinning Harry a wink, "Ah, zis will be out leetle secret."

«Yes, that would probably best until after tomorrow night, Monsieur Molyneux. »

«Ah! » the man exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he ushered them into his store before flicking the sign around to 'closed', «You know our language! Fantastic! »

Harry smiled and brought his awed sister forwards. «Monsieur Molyneux, my sister and girlfriend of three years May Uchiha. May, this is- »

«Soleil Molyneux! » she exclaimed as she finally got her wits back about her, and she beamed up at him. «I am a huge fan of your work, Monsieur; every single piece you create is art. »

Harry smiled as the man kissed his sister's hand with twinkling eyes – much like Dumbledore's only without the manipulative glint. «A pleasure Miss… it is Miss? » Harry nodded and Soliel smiled, «Miss Uchiha, and I look forward to creating a piece of art just for you tonight. »

She whipped around to face Harry, and found him already being tended to by one of Soliel's assistants; a measuring tape whirring around maniacally. He sent her a small, loving smile. "I knew that Monsieur Molyneux was your favourite designer, and I want your first ball to be perfect."

She gaped at him, completely ignorant of the measuring tape taking down her dimensions as she protested. "Harry, I love you but this is too much! This must be costing you-"

"Ten thousand five hundred and ninety seven galleons, for just your dress miss," the assistant informed her with accentless English, and she gaped across at Harry.

The black-haired Uchiha simply smiled back and shrugged. "I have more gold than I know what to do with May, and spending a little of it on you makes me happy."

"Harry," she protested, "you could buy a house with that kind of money!"

He smiled back and shrugged as the assistant skillfully cut swathes of beautifully exquisite black material to fit to his measurements. "I'll earn all the money I've spent tonight back within a day just through interest, and then some." He walked over to her, the assistant adjusting to his movement flawlessly; not even ceasing in his work, and took both her hands in his, a brilliant smile on his face. "May, let me do this for you… us. I want us to walk into that Ball and have people not just gaping at the fact that we're each other's dates, but also because we look perfect together."

After several seconds the shock softened into acceptance, and then a gentle but powerful joy, and he smiled before pressing a small kiss to her lips and retreating; standing still so that the assistant could work without interruption. It took nearly two hours before both of them were finished being measured, and Molyneux smiled broadly at the pair looking almost delirious with excitement. "Oh… oh zis is just vonderful," he murmured to himself as he stared at them both, "I 'ave the perfect vision… but zees will not do." May and Harry watched with complete shock when the man waved his wand and both Harry's finished suit and May's finished dress burst into flames, and stared incredulously at the man in front of them. He paced several times before staring Harry in the eye. "Monsieur Uchiha," he spoke seriously, "you muzt be confused… but I 'ave a vision – much like a… what is ze vord? Vandmaker?" Harry nodded dumbly and the man nodded back before resuming his pacing. "I could not give you ze dress or ze suit because zey were not perfect… but I have a vision, as I said."

He stared at Harry intently, and the young man could see the artistic skill flaring in the designer's eyes. "No extra charge, and I vill deliver ze finished dress and suit to you at ze 'Ogwarts gates in ten hours. D'accord?"

Harry nodded again, and snapped himself out of his shock enough to pull out a check and fill it out. He handed it to the designer, and the man's eyebrows shot up underneath his hairline. "Zees is too much, Monsieur Uchiha."

Harry smiled and shook his head. "No, not at all. It is clear that what you are about to make for us is more beautiful than we can comprehend, as the dress and suit you made before I considered perfect… so it is worth the price."

This time it was Soleil Molyneux who was looking shocked, and both Harry, and a still-gaping May, bade the man goodbye before stepping out into the alley. "He burned them," May murmured after a moment, and Harry gave a small albeit agreeable chuckle.

"Yes… yes he did."

They spent another hour in the alley before returning to Hogwarts, and at five in the morning the two shared a soft, but deep kiss in the Hufflepuff Common Room; May with her arms around Harry's neck and Harry supporting her waist; gently kneading the small of her back as she so loved. With murmured declarations of love the pair retreated back to their beds, and didn't awaken until nearly one o'clock the next afternoon. May wanted above all else to come with Harry to the gates to await the arrival of their outfits, but Harry eventually managed to convince her to stay inside the castle by giving her a book he had written on Susanoo; one of the two skills she had yet to learn and master of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

Harry was getting nervous by the time four o'clock rolled around and the Frenchman had yet to show, but at the moment Harry was about to Surf to France in order to check up on the progress a small roar met his ears and a moment later Soliel appeared in a small flare of blue – signifying that he had just used the magical streams to travel. Harry breathed a heaving sigh of relief as the man hurried towards him, and stopped just outside the wards whereupon the French designer reverently passed two long black bags to him, with a coat hanger hook sticking out the top of each one. "Zees… zees outfits are my masterpiece, Monsieur Uchiha," he muttered after a moment, his eyes following the two bags as Harry hooked them over his index finger. "I 'ave never made something zat works so vell togezer… I vant to know if I can use zees outfits in my advertizments. I vill never make zem, or copy zem… but zey are my masterpieces."

Harry smiled at the man and nodded warmly. «Monsieur Molyneux, as long as these outfits are one of a kind you may use them as much as you wish in your advertisements, as well as any pictures that arise of us wearing them. I will make sure that our local papers report that you were the one that designed them also. »

The Frenchman almost looked tearful, and shook Harry's hand firmly. «I wish you good luck, and love beyond all imagining for you and your sister. »

Harry smiled and bowed respectfully. "And I look forward to working with you again." The man smiled brilliantly before disappearing in a small flare of red; the colour changing because he was now moving away rather than arriving.

Harry quickly jogged into the castle, ignoring the surprised looks as he whizzed past his classmates, and entered the Common Room before looking around to see if anybody was there. When he saw only his sister he walked over to her, and she leapt to her feet when she saw him holding the two bags hooked over his finger. "That's them?" she asked breathlessly, and he nodded with a broad grin before looking at the labels and handing her the one that had 'May' written in an elegant golden script.

"Get dressed love," he told her with a smile, "and I'll meet you down her at ten minutes to eight?"

She nodded with a beaming smile, and after a quick look around to make sure they were definitely alone, leaned up and pressed a firm kiss to his lips, leaving them both quite giddy. After one last hug filled with excitement she dashed up the stairs and Harry was left standing at the base of them smiling warmly at where she had disappeared. He entered his dormitory to see Ernie and Justin half-dressed and fiddling with their bowties. "Really?" he asked them as he dodged an elastic attachment, and they peered at him with frowns; Ernie the one to voice the reply.

"Well… yeah. I mean what else is there to do for three and a bit hours?"

"Umm… wash yourself, bathe thoroughly, put on some nice aftershave…" he peered at Ernie's chin, "actually scratch that, just _shave_… come on!"

The two stared at him before looking panicked, and Ernie started pacing worriedly. "But I don't have any aftershave!" he groaned, "Let alone any worth actually wearing, and I'm out of shower gel and all the stuff from Hogwarts smells weird!"

Harry sighed, and after a moment stared at his bed before making a decision. "I can help you," he told them, "but you cannot tell anybody about what I'm about to show you, am I understood?"

The two teens nodded furiously at him, and he sighed before pulling his shrunken trunk from underneath his pillow and enlarging it. When he opened it up both of his roommates gaped. "T-That's one of them ten-compartment ICW responder grade trunks!" yelled Justin, and Harry stared up at him with a raised eyebrow. The awed black-haired 'Puff eventually noticed Harry's look and quickly crossed his chest. "I won't tell." Harry nodded before flicking quickly through the compartments, and with blindingly fast movements added two more rooms and bathrooms to his apartment. With another fast sequence of tapping the plan-view rendition disappeared and steps appeared, and Harry stepped into his trunk before walking downwards. He heard Ernie and Justin walking behind him, and opened the door at the bottom of the stairs.

When his two friends entered the living room they gaped at the luxurious furnishings, but Harry was quick to get their attention as he pointed to two other doors. "There's a bedroom and an ensuite inside each of those doors. Each bathroom has an assortment of shower gels and aftershaves." He pointed at Ernie, who jumped and pointed to himself worriedly. "Ernie, I suggest you use the white bottle of body wash and shampoo with gold waves on it, and Justin… perhaps the red bottle… yes, the red bottle for you." He pointed back to Ernie, and noticed with approval that he had his full attention. "Ever used aftershave before?" The teen shook his head and Harry sighed before nodding. "Right, spray twice onto your palm, rub palms together, and then rub over your cheeks and neck. Ernie, use Insense Ultramarine by Givenchy. Justin, Wings By Giorgio Beverly Hills. You both got that?" The two nodded, still shirtless with their outfits in their arms, and Harry pointed to the rooms. "Go!"

He stifled his laughter as the two rushed into their respective spaces, the doors slamming and locking behind them, and made his way calmly to his own room. He had nearly four hours, and planned on using them. He drew himself a bath with some mint-bath salts, and sunk into it with a relieved sigh; the potions within the crystals leeching into the water and penetrating through his skin to relax and rejuvenate his muscles. After nearly an hour he added a sprinkle of Axis; a revolutionary new potion developed in the States, and felt the water cool down to stop his sweating before a wave of sharpness and wakefulness rushed through him. He soaked for another ten minutes before stepping out of the tub and allowing the water to drain, and towelled himself try before shaving himself clean, putting on an aftershave he'd managed to purchase earlier that morning when May had commented on it, and then rolling on some deodorant – a muggle variety that was far superior to magical remedies.

He walked into the bedroom where the black bag was hanging, and smiled as he pulled off the note that had made itself visible.

_Harry,_

_I realize that you will likely receive ridicule from your country's press about yourself and your sister; incest is not well received even in France, but I consider myself a good judge of character. You and your sister are destined for great things Harry, and to be together. Never let anybody tell you otherwise, and I will show my support of both of you by using pictures taken at the Yule Ball in my advertising. It may only change the views of a small amount of people, but you will always have me believing you belong together._

_The very best of wishes,_

_Soleil M_

He chuckled before folding the letter in half once more and placing it in his bedside table drawer, and then returned to the bag with bated breath as he unzipped it.

What was inside made him realize that he had been completely undercharged; even with the extra money he had given the man. The outfit inside the bag was almost indescribably magnificent. He reverently pulled out the robe first, as it was hung over the rest of the outfit, and immediately noticed that it was far slimmer than any he had seen before in the magical world. The sleeves were tailored to fit around his arms snugly; just enough that if he tensed his muscles the material would pull taught over them, rather than leave huge baggy openings by the wrists. And the material was exquisite. Harry had only ever felt it once before, and that was when he was snuggled into the fur of the Nudu he had killed for warmth on the nights before he was found by the Shaman.

Nudu fur was considered the most exclusive material to have, even more so than basilisk scales. It slipped silkily through his fingers, woven so tightly that it didn't feel very much like fur but instead resembled muggle suit fabric, but the looks was where the similarities ended. The entire robe was as heavy as five of Harry's wands, which was not much at all, and was so comfortable and strong that it was not uncommon for cloaks made of the beautiful fabric to still look brand new hundreds of years after they were made.

He laid it on the bed with a disbelieving chuckle, and reached with almost-shaking fingers back into the bag where he withdrew the jacket. Harry almost fainted when he felt the tell-tale hardness, and when he withdrew the item in full he found himself looking at Black Ragefang scales running in thin lines across the seams of the jacket –which itself was made from, by the feel of it, mixed Nudu fur and Acromatula silk. He knew right then and there that not only had the designer not charged for the materials, but that he had to have spent thousands more galleons than Harry had paid him to simply purchase the fabrics. He laid the jet-black jacket next to the equally-black robe, and then reached once more into the darkness of the bag to withdraw his dress-shirt.

Harry couldn't believe it.

He stared at the material that seemed to suck all the light around it into blackness, and touched it with a small laugh before running his hands over it in its entirety. Ashwyn, the Black Ragefang he had released in the First Task, was the only living one of her kind still alive, and the slight smell of fresh grass wafting from the shirt signalled that not only was the skin freshly shed, but that it was also freely given. Soleil Molyneux had apparently come in contact with Ashwyn and asked her for her sheds, and after seeing the papers describing the acts Harry had performed in the First Task, had decided to use that skin to create his shirt. In harsh contrast to other dragons, Black Ragefangs' sheddings weren't brittle, and Harry could attest to that fact as he ran his hands over the velvety, but infinitely light skin. He traced the silver embroidered likeness of Ashwyn that curved around the right sleeve and over onto the back like a tattoo, and knew that the silver was _actually_ platinum.

He gently pulled that over his torso and gave a sigh of amazement as it fell almost like a liquid over his skin before settling perfectly against him; tailored to infinitesimally accurate measurements. He pulled on a pair of, once again, black Acromantula silk boxers that seemed to fit like a second skin, and had the slightly creeped-out thought that the man knew _all _of his measurements. He reached in once more to pull out his trousers, and found them to be of identical material to his jacket; a mix of Acromantula silk and Nudu fur, though without any scale fragments from Ashwyn. He pulled them on, sighing with comfort, and then reached in one last time to withdraw his shoes… made of Ashwyn's hide. He chuckled to himself a he pulled them on and laced them up, and made a promise to himself to call up the designer within the next week and thank him profusely. Having a part of his ally with him made him feel safe. He traced the thin, web-like embroidery of platinum residing within the strong dragonhide, and then walked over to his bed before pulling on his jacket and robe.

When he looked in the mirror he was astounded. He had been expecting himself to look like a block of black, but each and every layer had a different shade and texture that defined itself perfectly. Soleil hadn't provided Harry with a tie of any kind, and Harry had to admit that the outfit wouldn't have suited one. Looking at himself he vaguely ran his hands through his hair to style it just the way he wanted, and admitted to himself that the look he was at that very moment sporting perfectly showed who he was at a person; an unknown quantity, and yet at the same time not a ponce – as shown by the lack of tie and top two buttons being undone. He smiled at his reflection, and then walked out into the lounge area where Justin and Ernie were waiting. They froze at his appearance, and gaped as an elegant M flickered in front of their eyes for a moment; as all Molyneux-designed clothing did to prove its genuiness.

"Holy shit."

Harry chuckled at Ernie's declaration and sat down in his leather armchair when he saw that he still had half an hour to wait until he had to pick up his date. "Thank you, Ernie, for that wonderfully eloquent sentence."

"That… how in the hell did you get that? His stuff costs a fortune at the best of times, and I've never seen that kind of material before."

Harry fingered the material of his shirt, and was just about to answer when, with a flash of purple, Harry was left gaping at the Royal Phoenix that had once saved his life. _His_ eloquent words were also "Holy shit…"

The magnificent bird trilled with laughter, and Harry felt himself fill with happiness beyond all he had ever felt before saves from when he was with May. The bird fell silent after a moment, and Harry found himself completely unable to look away from the piercing gold orbs of the Phoenix. It seemed to scrutinize him; to look into his very soul, until with a beautiful trill it opened up its wings and with a flash of light disappeared. Harry stared at the space previously occupied by the rarest magical creature in history, and after nearly an entire minute realized that both Ernie and Justin were staring at his lap.

He followed their gazes, and swallowed a lump in his throat when he saw two indescribably beautiful wing feathers held in an 'x' shape, with their join covered by a pure white flower that had only ever been talked about in legends; the bloom of the Yggdrasil.

"Merlin," Harry muttered to himself as he placed the corsage in the palm of his hand, "is this repayment for all I've been through?" He could have sworn he heard the Royal Phoenix trill happily in the back of his mind and smiled down at the flower of the universe.

"Mate… just… I don't think words can describe this," Justin gave up after a moment, and Harry nodded his silent agreement as he smiled down at the flower and feathers resting in his palm. He looked up at the clock once more and jumped to his feet when he saw it was five minutes until he was supposed to meet May, and nodded to his two compatriots before ascending the stairs. He closed, locked, and shrunk his trunk when they finally emerged, and made his way out of his dorm and down the stairs. Heads turned and stared at him as he descended, and breaths were held when they waited to see whether he was going to walk out of the portrait to get his date from another house, or stay waiting in the common room.

The silence only deepened when he stopped at the bottom of the stairs; his hands clasped behind his back as he looked upwards with a calm, expectant smile, and even people who had been planning on entering the Great Hall early decided to stay and see just who their mysterious Champion had chosen as his date. The rumours had been running furiously ever since the announcement of the Ball, and even more so when Harry had told Cedric that both he and his sister had dates, and were both very much in love with their respective partners.

And time seemed to stop.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw a dainty foot clad in deep gold high-heels emerge onto the girls' staircase, and he watched as the rest of the leg slowly came into view; beautifully slender and toned. His eyes slowly moved upwards and he stared. Green fabric flowed fluidly to cover up the exposed leg before sweeping back once more as she stepped down yet another step, and his eyes tracked the slit up the right leg that only cut off just short of where her underwear would be visible – though he could see the impenetrable shadow charm that swathed all of the woman's sacred flesh from view. His eyes trailed higher; roaming over the slender waist that he'd held close to him so many times, and then over the liquid-like gold embroidery of Ashwyn that ran up her right side and curved over her perfectly shaped breast. No straps tainted her shoulders, only flawless, creamy skin displayed that flowed down into the modest but revealing cleavage, and his eyes finally raised to meet hers; tracing over her un-touched, beautifully pink lips and unpowdered face.

She didn't need a single product to make her look beautiful. His eyes met hers as she too finally finished her lustful inspection of his body, and filled with an immense love and joy that made him weak at the knees. The only words he could manage when she finally stopped in front of him were, "So beautiful," and she smiled at him before leaning forwards and kissing him gently on the lips. I could have been construed as a platonic kiss of good luck were it not for the fact that May soon wrapped her arms around her brother's neck to deepen their embrace, but neither of the twins cared. After nearly a minute they pulled apart, smiling with silent love, and Harry reached into his breast pocket to withdraw the corsage.

May put a hand over her mouth in awe when the gift from Magic was fully revealed, and Harry smiled before reaching forwards and placing his hand underneath her dress until the back of his hand was against her bare breast, and then attached the corsage with a small pulse of his magic. She stared down at it for a moment before looking up at him and loosing herself in his eyes, and he smiled warmly down at her. "It's nothing compared to you," he murmured quietly, as if anything louder would break the moment, and he watched her eyes take on an extra shine as she fought tears and smiled lovingly up at him. Harry held out his hand to her, and she placed her own onto his palm. He smiled again as he led her out of the Hufflepuff Common Room, and smiled slightly to himself when he heard the people who had witnessed it all silently begin walking after them nearly ten seconds later – completely mute and still in shock.

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal the worn leather bracelet May had made for him years earlier, and she smiled at its appearance. As soon as it cleared his sleeve numbers flamed into existence above it, and he smiled down at her. "Plenty of time."

She let go of his hand in favour of moving herself closer into his side, and he wrapped his arm automatically around her waist. It took three minutes to make the journey to the Great Hall, and on the way the group of speechless couples only grew as more and more people saw the twins together. When they came to the top of the stairs leading down to the Great Hall all of the awaiting staff looked upwards to see why there was only the noise of footsteps and no voices, and they too all fell silent when they saw Harry and May walking down the stairs; both perfectly in tune and walking comfortably with each other so that, even with their close position, it wasn't awkward. Harry looked down and saw McGonagall murmur a stunned, "Oh my God," to herself, and sent her a sly grin before moving on to look at everybody else waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

Dumbledore, who was standing in the center of the line of staff, looked at the pair with sudden realization and horror, and Harry gave the old coot a sneer – eliciting a red face. Snape looked completely gobsmacked and for once lost without any snarky words, and Professor Sprout looked as if things finally made sense.

Harry looked down at the other Champions waiting to enter the hall to begin the first dance, and found their reactions very enlightening and amusing. Hermione was by far the worst; her face twisted into a look of immense disgust and affront as she hung from Victor's arm, and Harry saw her lips move to mutter a hissed, "incestuous bastards," under her breath. Harry shrugged off her unimportant ideals and turned his attention to her date, which was glaring daggers at Harry for taking away, as his thoughts were broadcasting, "my woman." Harry simply sent the man a sneer of triumph and pulled May closer to his side, and he watched Krum stiffen and growl angrily when May turned sideways a little more and rested her hand on Harry's chest in a half-hug as they finished walking down the stairs.

Fleur had Rodger Davies drooling beside her, and she must have seen Harry's immense amusement because her hands started smoking and small cinders appeared as her anger flared and roused her Veela heritage. She didn't even seem particularly concerned about the fact that he was May's twin, nor that their relationship was clearly past platonic. Cedric's reaction was the one Harry most appreciated, though the disgust on his date's face did detract from it a little. He met Harry with a firm handshake and a smile, and then kissed May's hand politely before smiling at them both. "I would never have expected this," he muttered lowly to them, "but now that I see it… I agree. I'll have your back on this Harry, you too May." They both smiled warmly at the 'Puff as he returned to Cho's side, and took their place at the back of the congregation.

"T-the First Years heard _you_ two?" came a hiss a moment later, and Harry turned his head to see McGonagall standing beside them looking pale. Harry raised an eyebrow and the woman's cheeks flushed with colour. "Yes Harry, oh God!" she whispered, and both teens immediately reddened just as much as she had.

"Ah," Harry muttered after a moment, clearing his throat nervously, "forgot the privacy charms that time… it won't happen again."

After confirmation that it _had _been them the Scotswoman looked even fainter than before, and she glowered at Harry. "Your warning of 'prepare to be surprised' was in no way adequate!"

He stifled a laugh, his blush slowly receding, and bowed with apology. "I shall make a mental note, Professor, to _erect_ privacy charms to prevent corruption of innocent minds," he grinned as the woman reddened further at his innuendo, "and to inform you fully of the 'surprise' should there be another one… and there probably will be."

"You do that," the woman warned quietly enough that their conversation was still private, "because not even Sirius or James has _ever_ shocked me like that. You… you two are really together together, aren't you?" Harry nodded and she sighed. "Many will believe that it is all just a mutual solution because you don't want to date."

Harry smiled at her slyly, and she stepped back before shaking her head firmly. "I don't want to know."

She walked back to the line of staff, getting some curious stares, and stood stoically as some of the last couples trickled in; each and every one of them left gobsmacked when they saw Harry and May standing closely together. Finally McGonagall nodded and motioned the Champions forwards, and when the two twins walked into the room all noise ceased. Harry stifled a smile at the shock and led May to the very center of the dance floor; gently guiding her close to him. And then the music started, and Harry and May begun to move.

May had had dancing lessons when she was eight, and so knew the basic steps, but Harry was something else entirely when she'd first seen him dance. After the transferal of memories she too gained the experiences of Itachi and the thousand years' worth of formal dances and impromptu choreographing, but when she danced with Harry any thoughts of making it look good went out the window. She didn't need to try to make it look good. Their bodies moved with perfect unity; both of them instinctively knowing what the other was about to do and where they were at all times.

While the other Champions and their partners looked where they were moving to make sure they weren't on a collision course, Harry and May danced circles around them, and in several cases simply adjusted their fluid movements to avoid being tripped up by Fleur and Victor, and in one case Hermione. It soon became very apparent that everybody was outclassed in comparison to Harry and May; they moved with the confidence and grace of professional dancers, and Harry silently thanked Itachi for going through an artistic phase in his life.

Slowly more couples walked onto the floor and begun dancing, but the green-eyed twins were given their own little circle in the very center of the floor that nobody dared intrude upon. Slowly the first song finished and both Harry and May beamed at each other before walking off the floor. Harry found Cedric motioning him over while Cho looked uncomfortable. "You two are incredible dancers," he complimented with his famous smile, "everybody looked like complete amateurs out there when put against you."

Harry smiled, "Thanks, and you weren't half bad either considering you didn't know how to dance before this year."

Cedric motioned to the two seats opposite and Harry helped May into hers before taking his own. "How did you know that?" Cedric asked curiously, "I don't think I told anybody apart from Cho."

Harry smiled and leaned forwards conspiratorially. "Well you held out your left hand to Cho instead of your right at the beginning, and you were also unsure as to which foot to put your weight on. And Cho," he observed, noticing that she had foregone the slight disgust at his and his twin's unknown relationship, "was also leading… though I compliment you on making it seem as if Cedric was; it takes a lot of practice to get that down."

"You notice a lot," the seventh year 'Puff observed before sipping at his water.

May smiled and leaned forwards with a wink. "We've been trained to do so."

"Forgive me for sounding rude," interrupted Cho, and both Harry and May turned their attention to her, finding her expression unsure, "but isn't it odd you two being here together? Many people will assume something untoward."

Harry stifled a smile and nodded with a thoughtful frown. "Yes… yes, you may be right Cho. We wouldn't want them to get the wrong impression, would we May?" She shook her head seriously, her eyes glittering with mischief, and Harry stood before holding out his right hand to her, and she took it with a soft smile. Harry turned to Cedric and raised his eyebrow as he pointed at the two chairs they had just vacated. "Mind if we sit with you two tonight?" he asked, and Cedric shook his head with a small smile, but his eyes were narrowed with suspicion.

Harry never sounded innocent.

Harry send the teen a small smirk as he turned away, and saw his fellow Champion's eyes widen at the tiny flicker of amusement from the Uchiha. A path was made for the two as they advanced onto the dance floor, and with a silently unanimous decision all the couples cleared the space completely when the song ended. Harry quickly took note of the dimensions of the dance floor they now had to themselves, and then looked up to the orchestra before giving a small nod to the Conductor who was peering at him expectantly, and then gave several quick hand signs to the man.

The suited conductor raised an eyebrow but nodded back, and turned to his orchestra before waving his wand to animate them. Harry stifled a smile as May walked sultrily away from him as the deep, all-consuming bass thrummed sensually through the room, and took off his jacket before walking smoothly over to McGonagall who was staring at him agape, truly wondering if he was about to do what she thought he was, and thanked her lowly as she took it from his hands. He saw the conductor looking over his shoulder at Harry as he proceeded back to the center of the dance floor, and unbuttoned his sleeves before rolling them up to just past his elbows; showing his tanned, toned, and scarred forearms.

The silence only deepened, and Harry smirked at the Conductor who stifled a grin and turned back to his instruments, waving his wand sharply whereupon the tango rolled sensually out into the room. He saw McGonagall looking as if she was about to faint, and Cedric staring at Harry with wide eyes, and sent May a burning look – entirely missing the entrance of James and Lily Potter, who froze at the sight of their children standing several meters apart; alone on a dance floor with the rapt attention of everybody attending the ball lining the polished wood. He rolled his neck once before the music started in earnest, and stared deep into his sister's eyes as she swayed on the spot and glided slowly across to him, before with a sudden note jerking heatedly into his arms and raising her leg so that her knee was hooked around his waist; her groin tight against his own. Gasps rang out in the room at the action, but Harry simply stared and pulled her backwards slightly with him, and then with a sharp movement flung her away before rushing up behind her and running his hands under her arms which were clasped above her head; down her neck and over her breasts as they heaved with excitement, and finally stopping at her toned stomach where she grabbed them and flung them away before spinning out of his reach.

He stared at her heatedly as she raised a coy finger and hooked it towards herself, and strode across the floor before grasping her yet again; pulling her with one arm to his side where she danced sensually against him; twisting down before sliding her entire torso upwards against his own. He spun her around so that her lips were mere centimetres from his own and smiled as they brushed together as he led them across the dance floor as if on ice it was so smooth. She spun playfully away, but he managed to latch onto her hand just before she escaped him once more, and she looked back at him with a raised eyebrow filled with expectation – making his entire body burn.

He tugged her almost violently back towards him, and she crashed firmly into his chest where her bare leg, exposed nearly up to her knickers, rose against his before hooking behind his foot where she pivoted to behind him and found his arms around her waist once more as he spun perfectly in time with her. She smiled to herself at his quick actions to get her in his grasp again, and twisted downwards; allowing his hands to run themselves over her chest, and then jerked forwards; breaking free of his arms and spinning brilliantly away; her dress flaring up with the motion to expose both of her flawless legs before flowing back into place and hiding them once more.

Harry glared playfully at her, and she danced sensually on the spot to tease him; running her own hands over herself as she smiled coyly. He shook his head as he circled her, and gave a small chuckle when he was behind her and she peered over her shoulder at him; a mischievous smirk on her lips. He darted forwards to capture her once more, and leaned down to her ear to whisper triumphantly, but stared when she smiled back at him and wisped away like smoke, only to emerge from the crowd who was watching intently with both awe and shock.

Harry growled low in the back of his throat when he realized that she had substituted herself for the smoke of the candles around the room, and walked forwards as a predator would stalk its prey. She was still smirking at him at skillfully evading his clutches once more, but gasped when he disappeared from where he stood and appeared suddenly behind her, and quickly traced a rune on her skin with his fingernail; just hard enough that it made the skin rise with irritation. He smirked when he felt her try and substitute away once more, and it only deepened when he ran his hands over her front as he swayed triumphantly and drew her across the floor; her steps finally submissive to his. "I caught you," he murmured down into her ear from behind, and she spun around to face him; pulling herself flat against him as she looked up into his eyes; her own burning with excitement and passion as she ground herself obviously against him – leaving nobody in doubt about just what she was doing.

"You never lost me," she whispered heatedly back, and he grinned as he wrapped one arm around her waist and pivoted on his heel before reverse-dipping her and pulling her effortlessly straight once more; not even the slightest show of strain on his face as his muscles pulled taught with the force. She twisted this way and that as she sashayed back to his front, and danced a few meters out from him. Harry saw the Conductor signal him, and smirked as he danced skillfully towards her, and just as she spun away he once more caught her wrist. The last body-shaking note thrummed through the hall as he pulled her back into him, and complete silence fell as their lips touched. May smiled into their kiss; holding her body against his with the leg she had exposed and hooked around his waist, and reached up with both hands to grasp at his hair and pull him deeper into her mouth.

Harry matched her smile and indulged himself for several seconds before pulling away, and she reluctantly released his waist from her grip before lowering her leg and taking his outstretched right hand in her left. There was no doubt in anybody's mind as to what they had just seen. They had just seen an expression of primal sexual desire between two people they knew to be twins, and if the dance that had bordered so many times on sex hadn't convinced them then the passionate kiss at the end did. Harry walked over and plucked his jacket cheekily from the stunned McGonagall with a sly wink, and the crowd parted to allow the couple to pass. As the pair walked towards the gawping Cedric and Cho Harry couldn't help but play with them. He helped May into her chair before sitting down once more and smiled thankfully at Cho. "Thank you for your advice, Cho. Why, without it people may have been left thinking that my sister and I weren't lovers."

Harry heard a strangled gurgle from behind him and turned amusedly around with May to look at Lily and James gawping and pointing at them. Harry couldn't help but grin. "Step away from my daughter," Lily growled dangerously, and Harry sat lazily back in his chair with a raised eyebrow – the entire attention of everybody once more on him, even the conductor.

Lily strode forwards and made to grab at May's wrist, but found her arm slapped away, to her complete and utter confusion and shock, by the young woman herself. Harry stared straight at Lily with an expression completely lacking in regret as May spoke. "You ceased being my mother the very same day you cast Harry out into a world of pain," she hissed venomously, and the red-haired woman took an unconscious step backwards at the darkness in her daughter's voice. May clenched her fists against her knees, and Harry scooted his chair closer to hers so that he could grasp one of her hands with his own, smiling softly when he felt it unfurl and accept his touch. "You read all the stories in the Prophet," she said coldly, "and they were the nicer ones. If some of Harry's horrors were published you'd be cast through the veil."

"May Potter, come here right now," ordered James angrily; his face red with embarrassment at having the dirty laundry dried in front of not only Hogwarts but international delegates and press as well.

Harry gave a chuckle when a pleased smirk spread over his sister's face and turned to Rita who was hanging near the corner of the hall in the shadows, wildly writing away. She hurried to look in her robes when she saw his signal, and floated him a piece of parchment with her wand. He took it out of the air, nobody any the wiser as to who had given it to him, and cleared his throat as he unfurled it. James tensed when he saw the seals of the Wizengamot, ICW, and Gringotts International stamped onto the top of it, and Harry begun reading. "As per the laws and foundations laid upon Britain in 842 C.E, the Four Founding Houses of Emrys, Le Fay, Ridcully, and Uchiha were awarded complete immunity from the law, as well as a set of privileges. Each House's new generation reserves the right to adopt four magicals into their House free of any objections or permissions. This notice certifies the adoption of May Mikoto Uchiha, formerly May Janine Potter, into the House of Uchiha headed by Harry Itachi Uchiha by the British Government, ICW, and Gringotts International." He saw the Potters and Dumbledore paling more and more by the second, and he grinned before reading the last line, rolling it up, and placing it into the inner breast pocket of his jacket. "Dated November 1st… 1991."

"What?" James managed to croak out, and May smiled before leaning sideways so that she was against Harry's side.

She waited for his arm to come around her bare shoulders before answering. "As soon as I learned Occlumency he asked me whether or not, if I was given the option, I would leave the Potters to be in another family. I told him yes, that I would, just so long as the family was nice. Before I knew it he was leading me to Gringotts in the middle of the night to get it done right there and then. I've never looked back."

"B-but we…" he stopped himself from elaborating on the whole 'we imperiused Harry to be a good little boy… twenty times over' issue, and Harry sent him a smug grin.

"Ah yes… well I was faking it. You got through my Occlumency rather quickly with the combined assault, but I have secondary defences that you couldn't hope to break in a million years. It wasn't you that has been playing me for the past three years, James, Dumbledore, Lily; it is I that has been playing you. Isn't it just facinating? You praise the old laws; the pureblood tradition... and now a law, as old as magical Britain, gives me the power to do all that I have done." He looked down at his menu and gently stroked May's shoulder, eliciting a small smile. Without even looking at the three he waved his hand to dismiss them. "Now leave; I intend to enjoy the rest of my night with the woman I love."

The white-bearded manipulator, black-haired Auror, and crimson-haired healer dumbly walked away, completely lost at how to fight such a declaration, and conversation slowly started back up, albeit in whispers and low murmurs. May leaned up and kissed Harry sweetly on the lips before pulling away with a broad smile and looking over her own menu, and Harry smiled across at Cho who was looking completely unsure as to what to think, before turning to Rita in the corner and drawing a '2hrs?' in the air with his finger; leaving green-flaming letters for several seconds. He saw her nod eagerly and smiled before tapping his dinner choice and smiling when it appeared beautifully presented in front of him mere seconds later.

He loved pulling stunts like that.


	10. Chapter 10

_A Forbidden Love… or is it?_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Letters have been flying all over the country, and indeed around the world, detailing the happenings of the Triwizard Tournament's Yule Ball last night – and not because it was a spectacular event. The main focus of the night was Hogwarts' unexpected second Champion, Harry Itachi Uchiha, and his date – none other than May Mikoto Uchiha (details pg. 9); his sister. Speculation about their relationship was rife as the pair opened the dance with the other champions, thoroughly outshining any of them in the dancing department. _

_I myself wondered whether it was simply a way for Harry to enjoy the dance without any witches vying for his money and fame pushing in or making a move, and indeed so did many of the other people watching the pair interact with interest and suspicion. After Mister Uchiha and his sister visited and talked with fellow Champion Cedric Diggory and his date Cho Chang, Harry offered his hand to his sister before taking her back onto the dance floor, which miraculously cleared through unspoken agreement._

_Mister Uchiha then proceeded to converse with the Orchestra Conductor through some sort of sign language that I have yet to decipher, and I watched as he danced the tango with his sister – see the picture to the right. As I am sure many of you are thinking, especially with the kiss they shared at the end, that it is a blatant display of illegal incest and the couple should at the very least be arrested, but the Prophet has discovered that such a thing would be impossible due to his status as a member of the Founding Four which gives him complete immunity from the law._

_What, for many, is a relationship that must be kept behind closed doors is something they can freely admit to. I managed to get an exclusive interview with Mister Uchiha and his sister, both of whom still looked as fresh as they had at the beginning of the Ball despite having danced for hours, and we retreated to the gardens outside._

_I asked Harry to explain just how his relationship with his sister came about, and he chuckled as he wrapped his arm tighter around May's shoulders. "My life hasn't been a peach," he revealed, "as I'm sure all your readers know. From the moment You-Know-Who (please note that Mister Uchiha spoke the name) attacked my sister I was thrown aside and treated as if I didn't exist. I was kept so isolated that I barely ever saw my… the people that birthed me, let alone my sister. When I was abandoned and subsequently adopted into the Uchiha House I spent years overseas experiencing everything the world had to offer. _

"_I was always taught to keep an open mind about things, and I've seen all kinds of sexual orientations. I got to know several couples who were, and still are, lesbians (the muggle word for unsavouries of the female variety), and gays (the same, though for men). I've seen transvestites, and in several cases have passed through villages where relationships between witches and wizards and intelligent magical creatures are accepted and revered. I learned quite quickly that as long as it didn't hurt anybody else, what did it matter whom I loved?"_

_I must admit that by this point I was thrown by Harry's argument, and I watched as his sister leaned up and nuzzled his chest before turning to face me; still hugged against her brother. "The few times growing up I saw my brother he was the nicest person I'd ever met. He took the blame for things that I had done despite the fact that Lily and James would punish him severely for it – at times even physically. I saw him as a sort of saviour, my knight in shining armour if you will. When he suddenly disappeared I wondered where he'd gone, at least until I read your article in the Prophet."_

_She glared at me at that point, and contrary to what many of my readers must be thinking, I deserved it. Every last ounce of hate she gave me I deserved, and I regret my comments in that article ten years ago more than anything. _

"_The moment I saw what my parents had done, and their comments about how they weren't remorseful at all about essentially killing my favourite person in the world, I hated them. I still hate them. I wanted to kill them, even at the age of five. My dreams were filled with Harry simply being around me, talking with me, playing games with me, everything I'd wished I'd been able to do with him. As I experienced more of life and begun learning about things of a more adult nature, and comprehending romance… I wondered just what it would be like to be hugged by my brother like I saw lovers hugging in Diagon, or what it would be like walking hand-in-hand and just walking around shopping._

"_As I started reading fairy tales I would pretend I was the female princess or whatever it was, and that Harry was my saviour. Of course with these stories came romance and marriage at the happy ending, and I began developing feelings for, at that point I thought, my dead brother. I didn't care." At this point I watched as Harry leaned down without even looking first, and wipe a tear off the lid of her eye. It hit me that the two were so in tune that he could tell she was crying simply by her body language alone, and I started seeing them less as brother and sister in front of me. "I knew that Lily and James would get angry if they knew, so I never told them. It didn't matter to me that my brother was apparently a squib; it only mattered that he'd always been nice to me._

"_My thoughts had turned to dreams of kissing my brother by the time I entered Hogwarts. Lily and James had been getting worried about how sullen I was, and how withdrawn, and thought that school would be good for me." She smiled brightly and looked up at her brother before turning back to me. "And it was. When I heard the word 'Harry' I nearly died with anticipation… and when I saw him step out of the crowd I could barely breathe. It was him; the brother I'd thought dead; murdered by my parents. I remember staring at him with a huge blush across my face."_

"_Huge is an understatement," Harry then interrupted her, and May rolled her eyes with a grin as she jabbed him in the ribs. It was incredible to see two so young so enamoured and comfortable around each other._

"_Well I was finally seeing the man of my dreams, and he was even better than I had ever expected. He was so handsome, and he's gotten handsomer ever since. In class he excelled with ease, and I had to force myself to watch from afar. You see, my brother was and is still very security-conscious. His secrets were far too valuable to be shared, and he told me that I had to learn Occlumency before he interacted with me."_

_I asked Harry then just why Occlumency was required, and to my shock he informed me that the man that nearly everybody respects routinely uses Legilimency on his students. I felt ill when he told me that Potion's Professor Severus Snail also used legilimency on students. "It's why if you've done something wrong then they'll know it; how you can get in trouble without any evidence pointing to you. I'm sure that many of the Prophet's readers have experienced such cases in their times at Hogwarts if they attended." He frowned then, and leaned forwards slightly. "Snape, however, uses it for more nefarious means. I'm sure, once again, that any Hogwarts Alumni readers would have experienced insults targeted towards them that are tailored to hurt them immensely. He might hint towards a favourite grandmother being useless, bring to the class' attention something you are very embarrassed about but which you've never told anybody… scathing words targeting your darkest most private weaknesses._

"_He is a parasite; a horrible man that should be locked away… but, well, we should all trust Dumbledore, yes? After all, Albus Whatever-Those-Other-Names-Are Dumbledore 'trusts Severus with my life'. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him… hell, even as far as I could flick him with my pinkie." The malice in Harry's voice was clear, and it wasn't hard to tell that he'd been affected by the man's insults more than once before._

"_But that's beside the point," May said, bringing us back on track. "The moment I learned that he could adopt me into his family I accepted."_

_I stopped Miss Uchiha at this point and asked her to elaborate. Harry sighed with a smile on his face while his sister looked sheepishly up at him, and I turned my attention to him as he explained. "It was bound to come out sooner or later, and I suppose that now is as good a time as any. I'm not just a member of the Uchiha House; I am its current Lord._"

_I was understandably shocked at the revelation, and asked just why he had kept it a secret. "Plans were in motion," he revealed, "and not really by me. Dumbledore knew from the very beginning when I showed up, but kept it secret so that I didn't have public support. It was in my best interests to allow him to think he had the upper hand… and even with that olive branch extended it eventually led to a rather… dangerous altercation. Had I not been trained heavily in the Mind Arts… but we'll let that lie."_

_My readers, you should know that I pushed the matter to try and discover just what happened between Lord Uchiha and the greatly revered 'Lord of the Light', but he would only reveal one thing to me. "Let's just say that it led to me playing the docile, good boy that I've been acting out for the last three years."_

_This reporter can only assume that Dumbledore tried to forcefully manipulate Lord Uchiha's mind; an offence punishable by death should the young man push the matter. Headmaster Dumbledore should count himself lucky that Harry Itachi Uchiha seems to have a penchant for being merciful. I ended my questions by asking Lord Uchiha and Miss Uchiha about the public's reactions to their relationship, and both of them seemed to find my question very amusing._

"_Apart from the fact that we don't really care," Miss Uchiha told me, "I can't __**really**__ see the problem. I mean the only logical complaint is that we're going against the law… but we're not really, because we're exempt from it."_

_I asked about such close blood ties affecting their children, and Lord Uchiha brought up a very good point. "Firstly, that's what the pureblood population does. May and myself are half-bloods, and when we tested ourselves for markers of what we can pass onto our children we really have no outstanding conditions. If our child, should we chose one day to have one, or many, has a defect then such a thing can easily be remedied within the womb. It is what purebloods do so that their inbreeding doesn't cause deformed or otherwise, and understand that I say this with disgust, __**substandard **__offspring."_

_I truly couldn't fault Lord Uchiha's reasoning, and he then explained to me that as half-bloods they were less likely to conceive a child with a deformation than any pureblood. It isn't a guess nor a lie, as I have researched, but a rock-hard fact. I thanked them profusely for putting aside the time to talk with me, and watched them heading in the direction of the shores of the Black Lake the last I saw._

_Talking to the two of them I felt inadequate. If anybody has ever talked to them when they are serious, you will know precisely what I am talking about. Both exude an air of confidence and power, the latter in no way surprising after feeling the raw magic Lord Uchiha pulled forth with no apparent effort at in the First Task. However when editing this article and looking at pictures I had taken over the course of the Ball and throughout our interview, it became very clear to me – almost crystal._

_I have been known as a cruel woman; scathing in articles which ruin lives with one publishing; and ruthless and untruthful. Harry Itachi Uchiha and May Mikoto Uchiha belong with each other, and that is no lie. If the pictures don't sway your judgment then I ask that you reserve it until you meet the pair in person. Around them change occurs, and I have no doubt that from this point forwards everybody watching their actions will be awed and amazed by what they achieve._

_Until next time my readers,_

_A very humbled reporter._


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: So here's the new chapter! Epic in length, and hopefully of wonderful quality. Just one thing I wanted to address, this IS a super!Harry story. Harry is almost, if not completely un-beatable. Yes it makes it unrealistic, but it's fun - my other story however, rectifies this oversight; Harry and his girls _can_ be injured - so if you're all pissed off about the fact that Harry's unrealistically awesome in this fic, take a look at my other one.**

* * *

The whispers as the couple walked down the halls to breakfast were annoying, but May just hugged herself closer to Harry's arm and made conversation about the second task which was fast approaching. Harry silently blessed her for the distraction. Once again he'd managed to extort the answer to the task from his friends at the ICW, and had promptly declared to Henry that there was no way in Hell anybody was taking May and putting her at the bottom of a lake in the middle of winter. Henry didn't really have a say in the matter, as it rested solely with the organizers of the event, which were the heads of the three schools competing.

And Harry knew that while Dumbledore was going to keep away from him within the realms of illegality, it didn't mean he'd try and manipulate him when he could do it without getting in trouble.

Harry had chuckled to himself when he'd had that thought. The Old Man couldn't get in _legal_ trouble, but then again nothing Harry ever did was held within the grasp of the law. Apparently that lesson had yet to be learned.

Harry surreptitiously studied the reactions people were having to him and his sister, as the Daily Prophet had obviously made the rounds, and noticed that most people looked completely conflicted. Most of the first years just looked awed at the Girl-Who-Lived, but as the ages increased so too did the unsureness, as they'd had more time for the ideals of the world around them to sink in. Harry didn't really care either way, though he had to admit that walking into the animated Great Hall and having it fall completely silent was somewhat disconcerting. Harry gave a small smile to himself when he saw Ernie, Justin, Susan, and Hannah all sitting in a sort of group and helped May politely into her seat before sitting down beside her and smiling across at his two roommates, and his sister's who were either side of him and May. "Awful quiet this morning," he commented, and immediately conversation ground back into life – though far less in volume than it had been.

"Are you surprised," Susan asked with a frown on her face, but sighed when she saw the twins staring at her. "Look, I just think… I don't know what to think. I don't hate you or anything but…"

"Yeah," Ernie agreed after a moment, filling in the silence the younger Bones had left in wake of her comment, "and it's not like we don't agree with the Prophet that you just looked perfect together… but you have to admit that it's odd."

Harry stared at Ernie with an amused eyebrow raised. "Mate, I can transfigure you into a pincushion with legs. Our world's already weird."

Ernie looked a little worried and May chuckled as she handed Harry the sandwiches he'd been glancing at. He took them off of her with a smile, and while he dished up she shrugged and poured some orange juice into hers and Harry's goblets. "We're in love, and when you find yourselves in the same situation you'll understand. It the entire magical world shunned us I wouldn't care, just so long as I could still be with Harry."

Harry smiled across at her and reached over to take her hand and intertwine their fingers. A renewed rush of conversation ran down the table and across the hall at the action, but he paid it no mind as he sipped at his drink. "It's something you can't understand until you've experienced it."

"Uchiha, a word."

Harry turned around to see the grizzly ex-Auror staring at him; the electric blue eye whizzing sickeningly in its socket. Harry was sure he saw it stop on his sister for a second longer than strictly necessary, though that was probably because the perverted imposter found her clothes rather impenetrable. It still made him want to punch the man in the jaw for even trying. "Of course Professor," he replied before dabbing his lips and then kissing May sweetly on the cheek. "I'll be right back love." She smiled warmly up at him, not at all worried that he was about to be alone with somebody whom they both knew to be an imposter and thus an unknown quantity.

The scarred face looked almost flustered as he led Harry out of the hall, and eyes followed their exit – mostly fixed on the young Uchiha that had sent the entire magical world into a state of confusion the night before with his unmistakable declaration of love for his own twin sister. Harry quickly found himself pulled into an empty classroom, and watched calmly as the paranoid imposter checked for any surveillance charms. When he found none he relaxed slightly, and pulled out his hip-flask with a grunt before taking a swig and shivering slightly. "You figured out that clue yet?"

Harry raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "No offence, Professor, but what does it matter to you?"

Voldemort surely knew by now that Harry was the actual Whatever-That-Lived, and so Harry already knew the real answer. "Just don't want to come off looking inadequate Uchiha. I've got a reputation to uphold, you know?" the reply was gruff an irritated at being denied information, but Harry didn't care.

"Well I think your… reputation is quite safe considering my performance in the First Task, though I have the feeling that nobody was looking to you as the source of my skill. I believe I made it quite clear that it was the result of long and very late nights studying with the help of my sister."

The face twisted even more now, and Harry smirked internally. "Didn't answer my question Potter."

Harry didn't bother hiding his scowl, and growled lowly at Moody. "Don't _ever_ call me that you forgetful _fuck_." If the imposter had been expecting something, it sure as hell hadn't been a student insulting him and ordering him to do something. Harry stood up from the desk he'd been sitting on and walked for the door, turning at the last second with a small sneer. "I can defeat Black Ragefangs; the Black Lake is a piece of piss."

His sneer dropped the moment he closed the door behind him and walked back to the great hall; replaced instead by a frown. He knew what he _wanted_ to do to the lake, but the question was whether or not he actually possessed the power to manage it. May greeted him with a warm kiss on the lips that sent the hall into a flurry of activity once more, and then took his hand within hers as she ate. She could see that something was bothering him, but when he squeezed her hand and fluctuated his magic slightly she knew that he appreciated her not pestering him about it.

He had a rather large problem with his proposed plan however, and that was the fact that he'd actually have to let May be taken from him. That night he sat her down in his room, much to the gossiping speculation of everybody that saw May follow him into the dorm, and she leaned forwards on his bed – the curtains open so that anybody walking past could tell that nothing untoward was happening, not that it really mattered; everybody thought they were intimate after their sexual dance the previous night.

"What's been bothering you? You've been distant all day." She leaned across and grasped his hand, and he smiled tightly at her.

"I told you that I wouldn't let you be taken for the next task, but what I want to do would require it."

"And why do you want to do whatever this is?" She could tell that he wasn't going to tell her, and so didn't push for details, but she did want to know his reasoning.

"Intimidation," he sighed after a moment. "And I feel so guilty about even considering it. I'm putting my plans above you… and I hate myself for it."

She smiled to herself and then leaned across before pushing him down on the bed so that she was straddling his waist, and then kissing him softly on the lips. He was so shocked he didn't even resist, and she moaned lightly when she felt him respond; his tongue slithering wetly into her mouth. Both vaguely registered a round of gasps from the door but didn't pay it any attention; they were far too distracted to care. Finally May was the one to break the possessive kiss, and she smiled down at him as she stroked his cheek. "Answer me this. These plans, will they keep me safer?" He looked up at her; the lantern in the ceiling casting a halo around the beautiful face that hovered above him and after a moment nodded. "And will it also make people fear getting between us?"

He chuckled lightly at that, seeing precisely what she was doing, but felt the weight of guilt lift slowly off him as she explained his actions. "Most certainly."

She smiled and leaned down to kiss him lightly on his scar; her soft lips lingering on his skin for several long seconds before her tongue darted out and traced the damaged tissue. He groaned at the sensation, and she smiled coyly as she pulled back; a blush dusting her cheeks. "You're not putting your plans above me; above us," she murmured quietly as she lay down on top of him and hugged herself to his chest; her ear directly above his heart as it thudded steadily. "You're plans _are_ us."

Harry reached up after a moment and stroked her hair as a smile spread over his face. She was right, as always. "What would I do without you?"

She chuckled and he felt her breasts press harder against him. "I hope you never have to find out."

So did he.

The next nine weeks were gruelling. As a Champion he was technically exempt from classes and exams, and while he hadn't used that privilege for the First Task he knew that he needed the extra time for the Second. All the professors he liked he went and apologized to, and they understood and thanked him for taking the time to tell them. In all cases he'd pulled out his wand after thanking them, and then proceeded to demonstrate perfect sixth-year skills.

They'd immediately told him that he passed his exams with an O+.

May still had to stay in classes, however whenever she got a moment between them, or for lunch, she visited her brother who always seemed to be outside on the shores of the Black Lake. One day she'd been walking down to meet him when she'd seen Krum approaching, and she stopped to flick her wand into her hand. He smiled at her, but she could easily detect the smugness and leering nature hid behind it. "Ah, juzzt who I vanted to see."

"And why, pray tell, did you want to see me?"

He tried to step closer to her, but a sharp tensing and her raising her wand had him taking two back while holding up his hands, the smirk still on his face. "Vell your bruzzer… he muzt be controlling you."

May looked at him and folded her arms with her left eyebrow raised. "You really haven't thought this through, have you?"

He pointed to himself and then, much to May's shock, pulled of his shirt to expose his bare torso; finely muscled from Quidditch training. His smirk widened when he saw her shock, misinterpreting it as awe, and folded his arms to emphasize his arm muscles. "I am better zan you bruzzer vill ever be."

He hadn't, in any single one of his predictions, expected her to snort, and then break out into laughter before walking away; leaving him shocked and standing half-naked in the coldness. May approached her brother quietly from behind, but rippled her aura just enough that she saw a smile quirk at his lips as he turned and allowed the small wall of ice he was manipulating drop back into the waters of the lake. "Good afternoon love," he greeted, and she beamed as she sat down and nuzzled into his side.

"Good afternoon," she mumbled happily back, delighting in feeling his warmth once more seeping into her body. She peered over the mist-swathed waters in front of them and then closed her eyes as she snuggled closer into her brother. He smiled down at her and lifted her bodily into his lap, and she smiled into his chest; eyes still serenely closed as she felt his fingers start to run themselves through her hair and a warming charm slide over her; eliminating the cold completely as he brought her into his magical envelope. "So this is how you manage to sit out here in the freezing cold all day in jeans and a t-shirt," she grumbled good-naturedly to him, and he smiled down at her with a chuckle. "What are you doing?"

He looked out over the glass-calm lake and smiled softly. "I'm just making sure I am ready for tomorrow. I won't leave anything to chance." She smiled up at him, warmth spreading comfortingly through her as his magic swathed even tighter around her. "May…" She looked up at him, surprised that he had broken the silence in such a serious tone, and gave him her full attention when they locked gazes. "I-I would like to ask you for something very special."

She stared up at him, confused, and he blushed before looking away. Her curiosity surged when he did that; Harry very rarely blushed. "If it is in my power to give, then I will say yes."

He stared down at her for a moment looking surprised, but then she saw a warm acceptance enter his deep green orbs. "Marry me?"

Her heart stopped. She looked up at her brother with wide eyes filled with complete surprise and shock, and found him staring back at her with only love and worry. When she had come down to the lake to visit her brother she had never expected he would ask such a thing, but he had. There was only one answer she could even think to give, because there was no other.

"Mister and Miss Uchi-"

"YES!" she yelled as she pushed her brother down to kiss him as tears coursed down her cheeks and her lips curved into a brilliant, all-consuming smile. Her heart had restarted and was hammering in her chest like a ritual drum, and she could feel the complete elation of Harry through both his magic and his enthusiastic returning of her kisses. It felt like a lifetime before they broke apart, but when they did she could only stare into his eyes with wonder and devotion. Something had been solidified within her, and it felt as if that small thing that had always been missing in her life had been found.

"Mister- oh my…"

Harry pulled out a small velvet box from within his pocket, and May shook her head as she placed her hands over it without even looking. "I don't need a ring to be completely yours."

He smiled and kissed her again, but removed the box from her grasp before opening it. She didn't look down, still too intent on looking into his matching emerald eyes. "I know," he murmured softly, "but I want the world to know."

She smiled softly at him and nodded before looking down, and her eyes turned tearful again when she saw the two rings resting within. "I want the world to know too," she whispered, and with a shaking hand took the ring on the right before lifting up his left hand and placing it onto his ring finger. After it had shrunk to perfectly fit she encased his hand within both her own and smiled brilliantly up at him. "I don't want a marriage ceremony," she said quietly, tears rolling down her eyes. "This is all I've ever wanted."

He couldn't help but cry himself, and he gave a watery smile as he reached down and took her ring from the box resting on the ground. He lifted her delicate hand and laid it in his palm before leaning down and kissing it, and he felt her shiver as she pressed even tighter against him; cradled almost like a princess in his lap. She watched as he slid the ring gently onto her finger, but then looked up and met his eyes when a flickering connection of white bridged the two wedding bands.

She couldn't look away, and nor did she want to.

Harry leaned down and captured her lips tentatively at first, but the moment she pressed forwards and deepened the kiss his arms came automatically around her to balance her as she shuffled to straddle his lap, and then held her tight when she settled and her tongue darted into his mouth.

Harry gently stroked her cheek with his thumb as she pressed against him; wiping away the tears of happiness that were still running freely, and he felt her give a small sob into his mouth before pressing even harder against him. Both could feel the matrimonial bonds connecting them more intimately than ever before; tying each other's lives to their own before deepening when it felt both their wishes and literally brought their life forces into one single entity.

Such was the depth of the bond that the white lines between their rings pulsed outwards and multiplied in order to contain the magic; silver ribbons of energy whipping around the still-kissing lovers. Suddenly both of them felt everything snap into place within them, and their dual gasps forced them apart. Harry held May closer as the magic slowly settled around them, and she looked deep into his eyes with a brilliant smile on her face. She'd never before felt so happy in her entire life, and she could see that Harry felt the exact same way. "I love you, husband."

She let out a happy laugh when his arms tightened, but sunk immediately into him when he kissed her again with passion. "And I love you, wife."

She could see the intensity of his words in his smouldering eyes, and rested her forehead against his as she panted against his lips. "I can't believe it… I'm married."

He smiled and nodded against her. "Yeah." He couldn't say too much else; far too giddy to even think about creating a complex sentence, but was interrupted from his bliss by a clearing throat behind them. He turned his head over his shoulder and stared at McGonagall for a second before shaking his head firmly. "No, no; you can wait a few hours."

"Mister…" she trailed off when she saw the lack of wavering in her eyes and nodded after a moment. "By my office in three hours."

She saw the relief in both their eyes, but quickly begun walking away when she saw Harry erecting privacy wards. For the next two and a half hours the newly wedded couple explored each other with an intensity and lack of inhibition; the only unspoken rule that they would not yet make love. It didn't stop Harry staring in awe as he brought his younger sister to orgasm however; her naked body arched upwards and her hips bucking against his hand as she screamed out her release.

Nor did it stop May from returning the favour; watching with amazement as she brought her husband, brother, and lover to the peak of pleasure. She was shocked when he came violently over her hand, a glob or two splattering onto her cheek, but she had gotten over it quickly before, with coy eyes, licking her hands clean. It was the hottest thing Harry had ever seen.

Finally, ten minutes before they had to meet their Professor, the two dressed each other interspersed with gentle, tender kisses that promised so much after the Second Task was no longer hanging over their heads. When they arrived McGonagall was waiting with a small, apologetic smile on her face, and nearly told the pair to take another hour to themselves when she saw the complete reluctance and sadness to break their goodbye kiss. Her heart wrenched when she saw May's hand clutch to his for as long as humanly possible, before her grip was broken and both their hands fell to their sides; their expressions of longing mirrored in each other.

No words were spoken as McGonagall led his sister away, and Harry watched her retreating back until she was just about to round the corner. She paused, and then blew a teary kiss towards him, and he smiled before returning it. She disappeared then, and Harry stared at the empty hall for several moments before turning on his heel and striding back towards the lake with ice cold eyes. Victor saw him walking back towards where he usually saw the teen and made to intercept the Uchiha, but stopped dead in his tracks when Harry turned his eyes right onto him whereupon they flashed red and burned right through his confidence. He was left shaking with fear.

When Harry finally reached he lake he didn't stop, and only took pause when he was up to his chest. From where he stood Victor Krum watched as Harry seemed to prepare himself, and then dive past where the lake suddenly dropped off before disappearing into its depths. He stared at the water for minutes, and actually started to get excited when the young teen hadn't surfaced for air. What was quickly becoming elation morphed into shock when a red light slowly started pulsing underneath the water, quickening until it was just a solid flickering. Underneath the water things were in no way, shape, or form as serene as above. Harry's eyes were literally on fire, and he was screaming silently as pain wracked his entire being – eventually unable to even do that as all the air in his lungs was replaced by water. His entire body burned with blinding red flames that superheated the water around him, but Harry's skin remained unharmed.

It didn't feel like it.

Harry was fundamentally changing his Sharingan affinity. Echo Uchiha had been the first ever bearer to manage to do so, and with his Earth affinity his Sharingan had evolved; changing the usual red iris to green. It was Itachi who had refined the process so that a bearer could possess two affinities, though even he had never attempted what Harry was doing. The Sharingan possessed a fire affinity, and while fire could work with Earth and Wind, especially the latter, water was its polar opposite. In his memories Itachi's added affinity of wind had been agonizing enough, but nothing had ever prepared Harry for the pain he was currently experiencing.

Having his spine torn out and being stabbed with it was nothing in comparison, nor was having his eyes cut out. His implanting was somewhere closer to what he was currently feeling, but it was still miles off. He was furiously bolstering his magical wall to save his sanity; his Occlumency barriers having long been shattered, but he could feel it buckling under the torture. The pain suddenly found a weakened point in his armour and pierced right through before shredding into his consciousness, and he tried to scream again as the blackness encroached on his vision. He suddenly felt a snap, and convulsed as his eyes seared with pain as if they were splitting apart.

With a sudden burst of magic he felt himself propelled upwards as his wedding band sensed him close to fatally drowning, and the next thing he knew he was laying on the shore of the lake shuddering violently and vomiting water out of his lungs. He pulled in huge, desperate draughts of oxygen into his cleared airways, and after several minutes managed to get his breathing back into a rhythm that vaguely resembled normal. He could feel that his Sharingan was deactivated, and hesitantly opened his eyes; nearly sobbing in relief when he saw that he could still see. Still twitching with residual agony he managed to drag himself to his feet and cast a drying charm over himself.

As warmth permeated his fogged consciousness he felt himself sharpening, and slowly his stumble towards the castle gained confidence and morphed into a slow shuffle, and then his usual stride. He was still shaking and in pain, but it was nowhere near as bad now that he'd managed to repair his magical wall to stave off the worst of it. He saw Victor staring at him, agape, and wondered just what the Bulgarian was thinking. When he finally made it into the Hospital Wing Madam Pomfrey immediately took in his dishevelled appearance and all but threw him into a bed.

"What the hell have you been doing to yourself?" she growled, her hands on her hips, and Harry grinned weakly up at her.

"Just making sure I'm ready for tomorrow."

"Like hell," she grumbled, "you're in no state to participate."

He shrugged and grinned boyishly up at her. "Give me a good night's sleep and I'll be right as rain. And some pain potion. Some very powerful pain potion." She raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed. "Look, I completed a ritual and I'm only just managing to hold onto my screams right now, could I _please_ have something for the pain?"

She searched him for any lies, but upon finding none shook her head and grumbled under her breath as she walked over to her store and rummaged around for a few seconds. She returned with a neon-orange potion, and he looked dubiously at it before taking a deep breath and throwing it back. He spluttered violently and shuddered at the taste, and he thought he saw a flicker of amusement run over his carer's face as she watched his discomfort. "You're sadistic, you know that?" he bemoaned as she walked back to her office.

"Shut up and sleep," she said by way of a reply, and backed it up with a forceful glare. Harry was too tired to reply, both from the exhausting experience he had just endured, as well as the side-effects of the potion.

What seemed like seconds later he felt somebody shaking him, and when he cracked open his eyes he saw McGonagall looking worriedly down at him. "Mister Uchiha, it is time for the Second Task. Are you able to compete?"

"No," interrupted a voice from the far side of the room, but Harry ignored it as he swung his legs off the side of the bed and tentatively put weight onto them.

He gave a broad smile as he felt the usual strength at his disposal, and twisted this way and that a bit for a while before nodding to McGonagall. "Let's go."

Harry found his way out of the Hospital Wing blocked by a very angry medic. "You are not going out there and doing this stupid challenge, Mister Uchiha. Just yesterday you were in here needing a regulated pain potion; there is no way you can be released."

McGonagall snapped her head up to look at her student, and found him staring down at Madam Pomfrey with amusement. She gasped in shock when his eyes lightened and then morphed to a luminous aqua with a complex black pattern contrasting against it, and Poppy gaped. "The pain is fully gone; my body simply had to rapidly adjust to the changes I brought forth within it." His eyes faded back to the normal jade in front of both of them, and he winked before walking around the matron, the shocked Scotswoman hurrying after him once she'd gotten over her shock.

"Mister Uchiha," she started nervously, "just what was that?"

He looked down at her, an inch taller than her by this point, and smiled before turning his face forwards to look at the lake in the distance, to which they were quickly headed. "What I wished to achieve today could not have been done without aligning my magic towards an element, which is what I did. Of course that required my core to adjust to the change, which is why I was in so much pain."

"Mister Uchiha," she exclaimed with exasperation, "meddling with your core in _any_ capacity is extremely dangerous!"

He shrugged, and she could tell that he wasn't going to argue with her. She huffed in frustration, and she swore an amused smile twitched at his lips. They finally came to within hearing distance of the crowds and the moment one person saw Harry a chant of his name arose. A grin spread over his face as his name was yelled out again and again and again, and raised his hands with a wide smile – drawing cheers from everybody supporting him, which by this point was nearly the entire audience. As he got closer he saw Krum looking positively green with envy, and Fleur was sending him a death glare. When he reached the dock he was directed to his staring place, and he pulled his trunk from around his neck before enlarging it.

Whispers spread out as everybody strained to see just what he was doing, and after several seconds he pulled out a harness. People all watched with confusion and curiosity as he connected everything over top of his jeans and t-shirt, and the swim-suited Champions were all staring at him as if he was mad. So were quite a few people in the audience, but Harry could tell that their emotions were all tinged with immense expectation.

They expected something fabulous from him now, after all.

He shrunk his trunk again before re-clasping it around his neck, and then turned to the crowd and judges before bowing and raising his wand to his neck; amplifying his voice. "Good morning everybody! I'm sorry for my tardiness and making you all wait, but I can assure you it'll be worth it!" Cheers rose up in force, and he grinned before explaining the situation to them. "I was actually in the hospital wing after some last-minute preparations for the task today, and our beloved Madam Pomfrey didn't like the fact that I still planned on competing. Of course," he buffed his fingers comically on his shirt and swept a sly grin over the crowd, "she finally succumbed to my charms."

Laughter rolled through the crowd and Harry turned to the judge's table with a raised eyebrow. "May I stick a hand in the water to see how cold it is? That's not against the rules, right?"

He got shakes in the negative from Karkarov and Madam Maxime, and smiled before walking over to the water and doing just that as they announced the beginning of the tournament. He closed his eyes and activated his new Sharingan, and immediately felt a new awareness spread through him. He could see the benefits of having air as a second affinity, as it was far further stretching than water, but the benefit with possessing two clashing elements was that he could create the most devastating attacks possible. It didn't take long for him to locate his sister; her magic was like a magnet to him; calling out to his own soothingly and lovingly. He smiled softly to himself at the familiar comfort, and then withdrew as he stood up and shook his hand. Bagman was still stuttering his way through what the Task was comprised of, and Harry checked his harness that crossed in an X over his front and back.

Finally the blabbering announcements were over and done with, and the eyes were plastered onto the Champions. Dumbledore stood, still looking bitter that Harry had made it in time, and with a wave of his wand sent up a flare which exploded. Immediately Fleur, Krum, and Cedric launched themselves into the water with various spells cast on themselves, but Harry paid them no mind; instead walking down the jetty. Everybody followed his movements intently, and thirty meters out into the Black Lake he stopped and stared down at the water lapping centimetres beneath his feet. With a deep sigh he closed his eyes, and when he reopened them gasps came from people that either had Omnioculars or who were close enough to see the change.

His eyes glowed blue because of all the water surrounding him, and with one last breath of preparation he raised his arms. Had anybody been able to see the magic streams they would have been awed. Harry watched as walls of pure magic erected themselves in a circle at least one hundred meters wide, and then peaked when they towered at least ten times higher than the observation stands. People watched with baited breath as nothing seemed to happen, and then Harry clicked his fingers.

It was as if somebody had just set of a nuclear bomb underneath the lake. Water blasted upwards in a surge of white within the magical walls as nearly four billion litres of water was ripped forcefully upwards. Harry could feel the white-hot strain of holding the magic in place and knew that without his new Sharingan such a feat would have been impossible. Jaws were comically dropped in the audience as they beheld a display of such magical power that it actually frightened them, and watched with further awe as the water, now in a huge, hollow cylinder right down to the still-dripping bottom of the lake, turned white as it froze completely. They couldn't see down into the huge tube, and nor did they have to when Harry Uchiha tore his hand downwards and a huge chunk of the tube detached right in front of him. Everybody watched with awe as Harry, with seemingly no effort, levitated sixty kilotons of ice and dropped it into the lake outside of his waterless tube. The resulting wave caused a miniature tsunami, and Harry had no doubt that his fellow competitors under the water were having a hell of a time because of what he was doing.

Now Harry Uchiha stood in front of a chasm two hundred and fifty meters deep, and gasps of amazement rang out when they saw a huge city beneath them, and four poles right down the very bottom where four small lumps of colour were bound. Harry let his arms drop; his magic no longer needed to keep the water at bay due to it being ice. He took several steps back from the edge of the hole he had created in the lake, and then ran full-tilt before jumping. Squeals of terror and yells of surprise came from the audience, but Harry's ears heard only the whistling of the air as it rushed past him. Six seconds after launching himself into the chasm he flung his arms out, and with a bone-wrenching jolt a huge matrix of magic burst from his back; centred at the middle of the X the straps were creating.

The last fifty meters to the ground he glided quickly; adjusting his flight with minute adjustments of his arms. Pulling out a knife he stabbed it hard into the wood of the beam his sister was attached to, and he hung there for a couple of seconds getting his breath back from doing something so completely crazy. He looked downwards and smiled when he saw the top of May's head, and then looked upwards.

Even he was impressed. The sheer walls of glacial-seeming ice stretched up for nearly four hundred meters, and he gave a whistle. "That's kinda cool," he muttered to himself, and then pulled his knife free as he slid downwards. When he was just above his sister he let his hands drop, and as he started to free-fall once more he simultaneously sliced the ropes holding her and grabbed her around the waist. He heard her scream as she immediately gained consciousness to falling towards sharp rocks, and Harry grinned before calling out the activation phrase for his magical parachute now that his hands and arms were busy holding onto his sister. Her screams cut abruptly off as the breath was knocked out of her for a moment, and she turned her head sharply over her shoulder. Relief flooded her expression when she saw Harry smiling back at her, but then slowly focused over his shoulder at the walls of ice.

"My god…" he heard her murmur, and chuckled before flaring them backwards so that they landed standing up. She stumbled for a second, but he managed to steady her before she could fall and hurt herself on the jagged rocks. She looked upwards with wide eyes, and took his hand absentmindedly before squeezing. "You did that?"

"Uhuh."

"That's awesome."

He grinned and chuckled. "I do try. Now where's my kiss."

She seemed to jerk from her reverie, and blushed embarrassedly before leaning up and kissing him with infinite tenderness. He wrapped his arms around her as she deepened their passion, and felt her groan happily when his hands sunk down past the waistband of her jeans and squeezed her ass. Several seconds later she finally withdrew, but Harry made no motion relieve either of his palms of the soft flesh they held. May didn't move to relieve him either; simply moved close to his chest and sighed as he gently squeezed and massaged. "Mmm, shouldn't we be hurrying?"

He looked at the ice around them and then back at her with a raised eyebrow. "We've got at least thirty minutes before the others give up trying to get through the ice and arrive back at the jetty, and from there they have to figure out a way to get down here, get their own hostages, and then get back up top. The time limit's an hour… so I think I just singlehandedly made them all go over."

She giggled and then moaned when he massaged firmer. "Oooh… keep doing that. You're evil."

"I only feel guilty about Cedric," he admitted, "so I'll make a ledge of ice just out from the jetty and put Cho there."

She finally looked upwards to where he pointed, and frowned when she saw Hermione still strapped to her pole. "Who's she the most precious thing of?"

"Process of elimination, Krum. I think Dumbledore fucked up on that one."

"And the girl?"

"I got a look at her as we fell past, and she resembles Fleur, so I'd say a sister, cousin, or close relative."

"Mmmmm…" She looked around lazily as she enjoyed his ministrations, and after five minutes looked upwards. "How're we getting back up?"

"Well I'll need your help for that," he admitted with a grin, "because I'm exhausted."

It took another five minutes for him to explain the spell he wanted to use, and while she thought him crazy she was eager to join him on the grand finale. Harry held May close as they started chanting, and she had her hands clasped around his neck as she smiled up into his eyes. Slowly they felt the magic taking hold, and a sudden drain acting on their cores, and then with the final syllables they started freefalling.

Upwards.

May was holding onto her brother for dear life as he was her, and in the audience heads snapped upwards when a black and green blur shot past the opening Harry had made to make his jump. Ten seconds after they had stared the spell Harry stopped chanting, and without his magic the entire structure collapsed as they cleared the top of the ice wall. They still flew upwards, though slowing, and the moment they hung suspended, hanging still five hundred meters above the bottom of the lake, Harry quietly ordered the parachute to deploy. May hesitantly looked down as they floated serenely downwards, and then smiled up at Harry who looked nearly dead on his feet. He smiled lazily down at her, and she laughed at his expression before paying attention once more as he angled them towards the pier. When they were mere meters away from touching down Harry activated the stall feature, and with a landing as soft as stepping off a ten centimetre step their feet landed once more on solid ground.

There was silence for a moment, but then a fantastic roar of approval rose up – equalling the ear-shuddering cheer that he had experienced after the First Task in intensity. He waved happily back at all of them, and the leaned down to kiss his sister full on the lips in front of _everybody_. Contrary to what he'd been expecting the applause only got louder, and May grinned into his mouth before pulling away and embracing him. It was then he caught movement out the corner of his eye, and watched as Fleur stepped up out of the water looking up at the wall of ice with her jawing hanging in a rarely-seen expression that wasn't prim and proper. When she saw Harry standing completely dry and with his sister she scowled, but didn't dare approach them – if the four hundred meter high, one hundred meter wide, and twenty meter thick wall of ice was an indication of his power, she'd do well to not piss him off in any way. Victor scrambled onto the wood shivering slightly, and followed Fleur's line of sight. His stream of Bulgarian curses caught in his throat when he saw the backdrop of his competitor, and then after several seconds changed to reflect his jealousy and infuriation as well.

Finally Cedric arrived; thirty minutes after the task had begun, and mimicked the reaction that both his previous competitors had had when seeing Harry's method of getting his sister – except without the glare. By this point Fleur and Krum were frantically trying to think of ways to get to the bottom of the chasm without getting killed, and how to get back up, but Cedric took a moment to walk over to the pair who were now sitting on a leather couch McGonagall had so kindly conjured for them. "That… that is just bloody unfathomable. How in the world did you manage that?"

"Magic," Harry smirked back, and Cedric didn't even have the emotional room to roll his eyes, still too awed. Harry pointed to the edge of the jetty and smiled with a wink. "You might want to take a walk over to the edge and look down. Wingardium Leviosa should do the trick nicely."

He stared at Harry for several seconds before doing as the younger teen had suggested, and when he peered down he nearly fainted – at first from the depth of the hole, but then from shock when he saw Cho laying on a slab of ice mere meters below him. With a shaking wand he cast the first-year spell, and the crowd watched with bated breath as they wondered what the other Hogwarts champion was doing. When Cho floated serenely upwards a moment later heads slowly creaked around to look at Harry grinning, and then roars echoed out across the lake once more; roars of approval. Cho awoke the moment Cedric touched her, and stared around in complete confusion as Bagman screamed over the yells of his audience.

"And what an INCREDIBLE development! Apparently loyalty matters to the Uchiha, because his fellow Hogwarts' champion's hostage was sitting mere meters below the lip of the ice! Just incredible!"

"That was a nice thing to do," May yelled up to Harry over the screams and cheers of the people in the stands, and he smiled slyly down at her.

"It wasn't all for innocent reasons. I also did it to see the looks on Fleur and Victor's faces." She turned her head to face the two in question at his explanation, and snorted with laughter when she saw their pale, twisted expressions. Victor was completely red with anger, and had completely lost his cool. He was stamping furiously like a petulant child, and May could easily spot ten people recording the scene with only a second's looking. Fleur, however, was smoking with fury – literally. Her face was slowly becoming more avian as her Veela form stared to break through, but it fluctuated; showing that she didn't have the required ability to actually transform and become a problem.

By the time the hour was up Victor was half-way down the huge hole on his broom, and Fleur was screaming and crying because she didn't have any broom to summon and her sister was still down at the bottom. When Victor emerged with just his hostage he was greeted by deafening boos of condemnation, and Fleur just cried harder and sunk to her knees. Despite the fact she was a complete bitch it didn't mean she didn't care about her sister. Two on-duty aurors finally dove down on their brooms to collect the girl when it was clear her older sister wasn't in any condition to do the rescuing herself, and the moment the young girl was engulfed in her sister's hug she awoke looking completely confused as to what was happening – especially why Fleur was bawling her eyes out. Harry vaguely waved his hand to make the couch under himself and his sister face the judge's panel, and nobody was really surprised; it was just another thing to add to the list of amazing things Harry Itachi Uchiha could do.

Bagman once more raised his wand to his throat, and grinned out across at the crowd. Despite the fact he'd lost thousands to the Goblins he was still a showman at heart. "And now for the scores! In fourth place, Fleur Delacour with ten points for her persistence against the ice wall!" There was a smattering of applause from the audience, and Harry watched Fleur's face drop. She was way last with no way of coming back before the final task. "In third place, Victor Krum whom the judges have awarded twenty five points for at the very least attempting to rescue his hostage, and managing to do so. The time limit had already expired however."

The Bulgarian turned red with anger once more, and Bagman turned to Cedric with a smile. The 'Puff smiled back and pulled Cho closer into his side as he stood awaiting his scores. "In second place Cedric Diggory, whom we award thirty five points. He rescued his hostage within the time limit, however he was also helped in great part by Harry Uchiha!"

This time the applause was thunderous, though Cedric gave a nod to Harry acknowledging that most of the celebration was not aimed towards him, but rather the true hero of the competition. Bagman finally turned to Harry and shuffled the notes in his hands. "Harry Itachi Uchiha has gained first place once more, but – please, just quiet down her everybody…" he waited for a moment until he had everybody's attention once more, and then started speaking again. "Harry Itachi Uchiha, as I'm sure you all know, is a fourteen year old student – a fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'll let that sink in for a moment." He did, and it seemed that quite a few people were most definitely having it sink in if the wide eyes were anything to go by.

"So not only is Mister Uchiha three years younger than his fellow Champions, but he achieves feats like these," he motioned to the huge wall of ice still standing proudly in the lake, "and defeating the most intelligent and dangerous dragon in the world. And he seems to do it with ease, though he does look a little tired now…" chuckles rumbled through the audience, but they hushed when Bagman continued with, "not surprising considering the fact that he just moved, and froze around four billion tons of water." People looked at Harry with wonder, finally comprehending the incredible feat in front of them. "While Harry Uchiha was working his magic, several unspeakables came along to grade him simply for interest's sake."

Harry jumped in and looked up at Bagman with a tight smile before amplifying his own voice. "Yes, Mister Bagman, and such things will stay unspeakable."

There was a slight coldness in his voice, and the rather tubby man furiously nodded his head. "Ah… yes… well I'm sure you don't need to know his magical class to know that he's powerful. Erm, as such the judges awarded the following points. Igor Karkarov, ten points." Cheers boomed down around Harry and he smiled up at the ex-Death Eater and gave him a respectful nod, and received one in return. "Madam Maxime, ten points." Another roar of approval before it silenced in anticipation of the next result. "Barty Crouch, ten points." This time the crowd went wild, and Harry frowned up at the man when he saw the lack of reaction. He vowed to look into that later. Everybody fell silent once more, and Bagman cleared his throat nervously. "And… erm… well Albus Dumbledore, ah… awarded six points."

There was dead silence as every single head turned to the man in complete and utter shock, and then as if a switch had been thrown insults rained down upon the white-haired warlock. He winced at the noise invading his ears, and Bagman valiantly tried to calm the audience down. "Um, Mister Dumbledore stated his reasons as-"

"I only gave Harry a six," Dumbledore interrupted, "because of how he went about the entire situation. Rather than simply using magic in moderation, Harry opened up a chasm one hundred meters wide at the very least; inconveniencing all the other Champions in the process. Moreover, when he had the opportunity to help rectify that inconvenience he only did so for a fellow housemate, and not every single Champion. He also risked the lives of the Merpeople, and has likely killed a significant number of their population with his carelessness."

There was another couple seconds of silence before the insults came back tenfold, and Dumbledore sat meekly down, but clearly wasn't about to budge. When Harry cleared his throat once more the yells and screams of anger slowly ceased until he had everybody's attention. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please observe the bias here, and let us consider the reasons behind it. He stood up, gently moving May off of his lap with a small kiss to her lips, and begun pacing slowly. "Firstly, please somebody tell me what this event is called."

A yell from the crowd declared, "The Triwizard Tournament!"

Harry nodded to the person and smiled. "Precisely right, Miss. Does anybody have a dictionary on them? Perhaps in their bag?" He pointed to one of the raised hands and smiled when he saw that it was Susan Bones. "You Miss. Would you please read out the definition for 'tournament'?"

She nodded shyly before flicking through the pages, and then cleared her throat before speaking as loudly as she could. "A series of games to determine a winner or winning team by elimination."

He smiled and nodded to her, and she sat down blushing with embarrassment. She wasn't used to speaking in front of a class, let alone thousands of people and the press. "Thank you Miss Bones. Now please note the 'elimination' thing right there. This is a competition ladies and gentlemen, plain and simple. In the past it has been well documented that competitors have killed their fellow Champions in various ways, and it states in the _rules_, people, the _official rules_, that the Champions will not be held responsible for any crimes they commit against their fellow Champions whilst competing within the Tasks."

Murmurs of surprise and discomfort rolled through the assembled observation stands and Harry nodded. "Right, and there was one Champion, the last tournament in fact, who killed all of his fellow Champions in the Second Task through the use of the Killing Curse. It was why the Triwizard was banned for a long time." People who weren't so much into history looked appalled at the knowledge, while some already knew about the incident. "And the judges awarded him ten out of ten… all of them, because there was no reason not to. He'd not cheated, he'd not disobeyed the rules, hell, he hadn't even bent them. There must be a _valid_ reason for points to be taken away. For instance, in the First Task we were told that if any eggs were crushed points would be deducted, and as we'd been warned that was valid, points were able to be deducted for the violation."

He turned his head up to Dumbledore and crossed his arms. "Let us go step by step over our oh-so-esteemed Headmaster. Firstly, apparently I didn't use magic in moderation… apparently. Mister Crouch, does it state anywhere in the rules that we are not allowed to use above a certain level or power of magic?"

The man seemed dazed for a moment, and Harry frowned again when his answer took a moment longer than it should have. "No. Nowhere did it state that Mister Uchiha."

Harry nodded his thanks. "Thank you. Now I haven't checked, but how much were tickets to attend this event?"

One man in the crowd yelled out the answer. "Fifty galleons for each event, and one hundred and twenty for all three if you're not a student."

"Right," Harry nodded, "so by my estimate half the people here are students, probably four thousand'ish people all up, which means two…carry the… one hundred thousand galleons around abouts for just this Task. Now, for that much money, how many people expected to be entertained? Hands up nice and high!" Not a single hand saves Dumbledore's was left down. Even Draco Malfoy had his hand up. "Right. Now when you got here and saw that no screens had been erected to show what was going on underwater, nor was there any way to follow the Task, and that you'd paid 50 galleons to sit in the cold doing nothing… well put your hands up if you were highly disappointed, angry even, at what you got for your gold?"

Everybody's hands went up once again, saves Dumbledore's, and grumbles of discontent sounded like quiet thunder. "Right. Now leave your hand up if you don't think you got your money's worth now."

Every single hand went down, and Dumbledore was turning puce. "Thank you all. Now, and I truly don't mean to be egotistical or anything, put your hands up if the reason for that money being worth it was what I did."

Once again, every hand went up. Harry smirked up at Dumbledore and drew a tally line in mid-air with his finger, where it burned brightly with bright blue flames. "Secondly, inconveniencing all the other Champions… it's a tournament. We've already covered that, so strike two." Another line was drawn next to the first, and Harry begun pacing again – catching his sister surreptitiously recording Dumbledore with a pair of Omnioculars she'd summoned from a nearby vendor. "He next stated his reason for points loss because I didn't help the others as repayment for inconveniencing them, when I clearly could because I helped Cedric… ah, Headmaster, the dude that killed all of his fellow competitors was later seen pissing on their graves. He didn't really pay them back for the inconvenience of them being _dead_, and he got full marks."

Another mark joined the other two, and Dumbledore was trembling slightly. "And then we come to perhaps the _only_ valid point of your entire bullshit argument." Although Harry had just insulted him, the fact that he'd admitted that he had a valid point brought his blood pressure down and made the disappointed grandfather façade slip back into place. "Now firstly I think I should make it, once again, clear that I literally cannot be penalized for even murder when competing in a task, but before people start jumping to conclusions, and certain white-haired and bearded men start jumping for joy," cue the red face from said certain man, "I have not murdered a single sentient being today. Maybe some fish, perhaps some microbes and bugs… but no sentient beings were hurt, let alone killed.

"You see, when I raised my hands what was invisible to all of you was the fact that I was erecting a magical wall to contain the explosion of water upwards. At the same time I did that, I made sure that a danger signal was sent under the water. I talked to the Merpeople about two weeks ago about this whole thing, and worked out a deal with the Chieftain. With the speed of the water being pulled up, it literally water blasted every single building in their city. I just cleaned up where they live, and in return they relocated to outside their city for the duration of the Task." He beamed up at Dumbledore and then pulled a pill out of his pocket. "Those who haven't heard Mertalk… well, be prepared to block your ears."

He popped the pill when he saw people raising their hands to their ears in preparation, and when he felt his vocal chords rearrange he turned to the water and screeched loudly in the foreign dialect. Hands immediately clamped down on ears and he grinned wryly before turning to the water beside the jetty where it was free of ice as it bubbled. Everybody watched with fascination as scaly green heads slowly emerged, and within moments over fifty were visible. After a moment's careful looking around the largest Merman swum deftly forwards and looked up to Harry with bared teeth as it screeched back in the same ear-splitting dialect. Harry gave a laugh and ground something back, and high-pitched cackles of amusement pierced the still air as the Merpeople found amusement in whatever he'd said.

After several minutes of friendly conversation the Merpeople disappeared once more, and Harry looked down at their forms slowly loosing definition before fading into the inky blackness. He swallowed another pill to return his voice to normal and smiled back at the crowd, all of whom were hesitantly removing their hands from their protective positions. "That was the Chieftain, and as you can see, he's happy. Anybody who knows anything about the Merpeople knows that if I so much as hurt one of their kin they would _not_ be happy, and they most certainly wouldn't share a laugh."

Harry drew another line in the air and smiled smugly up at Dumbledore, who was once again puce. "So that about covers it, no? I have formally raised my complaint, and have had it witnessed by all four judges. You are now obliged to make a decision about the actions to be taken, if any, to rectify that which I have complained about. A majority vote is legitimate, at least if the rule book is anything to go by."

A small series of glances flickered between three of the judges, and the fourth was simply glaring at Harry. Madam Maxime, once more, was the spokeswoman of the Judge's Table – just as she had been when she had announced the bonus five points to Harry in the first task. "In a vote of three to von, ve overturn Judge Dumbly-dorr's six points and award ten, as vell as anuzzer five for a never-before-seen piece of magic."

Harry bowed thankfully to the judges as applause and cheering burst out at the declaration, and Harry saw Dumbledore storm away from the Judge's Panel headed in the direction of the Castle, likely to skulk. Harry sort of felt bad for the man, because Harry wasn't quite yet done with everything. He bowed politely and waved his hands to get everybody to calm, and then motioned to the huge cylinder of ice that was cemented to the bottom of the lake. "Thank you, thank you all for the support; you have no idea how proud I am to be representing my family so well right now… but we'll come to that in another moment. Ladies and Gentlemen, I require your help because, to put it quite simply, I'm too bloody tired and drained to do this alone." He grinned impishly at his admission, and got a round of good-natured chuckles for his trouble. "Would everybody who can do so legally take out their wands and aim at me?"

They all did so, albeit in some cases reluctantly, and Harry smiled before stepping well away from May in case anything went awry. "Now everybody, I want you to aim at the red dot in the center of this shield." He erected the shimmering white barrier with a push of his magic, and felt himself nearly collapse with the sudden drain. He knew that if he used a single drop more of magic within the next day he'd be suffering from magical exhaustion for a week, but kept up the steady façade as he smiled and stepped back. "Now people on this side," he motioned to the left of the audience, "please use the spell _finite maximus_, the same motion as finite, and the people on this side," he swiped his hand to the right to motion to whom he was referring, "cast _Wingardium Leviosa_." He smiled at everybody, "And just keep on casting. Is everybody ready?" Yells of excitement came from the crowd and he finally stepped away from the pearlescent shield. "And go!"

The barrage of magic from nearly four thousand people was saturating, and as they weren't offensive spells the shield easily reflected them to the perfect spots on the huge ice construction. With an Earth-shuddering crack the ice tube detached itself from the bottom of the lake and water once more begin flowing into the Mermish city. As the Wingardium Leviosa spells took hold the cylinder rose, albeit slowly, until its buoyancy took hold and it tipped on its side – by now well above the city and thus unable to damage it. Harry yelled out for everybody to stop and after several seconds the spells ceased. Everybody watched with amazement as water rushed to return to its rightful place in the lake, and the huge ice tube slowly fill with water until only a tiny sliver of it was visible above the surface of the water. It was still three hundred meters long however.

Harry walked over to May and held out his hand, and she smiled confusedly at him until he rubbed his right eye surreptitiously. She knew what he wanted immediately, and smiled up at him before taking his offered hand and walking with him to the end of the dock. With a muttered "Amaterasu" from May black flames burst into life upon the ice, and with a speed that shocked all the onlookers ate away at the huge piece of ice like a hot knife through butter.

When it was finally only a tenth of its original size May let the flames die, feeling tired from the exertion, and she wondered just how on Earth her brother was still standing after what _he'd_ done. He smiled before turning back at the audience and bowing thankfully. "Much obliged, now before I go and sleep for a month or two, Ladies and Gentlemen, I, we," he wrapped his right arm around May's waist to indicate whom he meant, "have an announcement to make."

People leaned forwards in their seats, and Harry smiled warmly down at May. She smiled brilliantly back and nodded, and Harry turned back to the audience. "As all of you already know, I am together with my sister. I am in love with her, and have been for over three years. What none of you, apart from the adorable Professor McGonagall, bless her cotton socks," the usually-composed Scotswoman blushed beet-red to the roots of her hair, much to the amusement of the audience, "is that yesterday before May was taken from me to be put at the bottom of the Black Lake, I proposed."

Gasps of surprise rang out among everybody, and May smiled up at everybody staring shocked down at them. "I accepted," she told them, "and we were wed. Professor McGonagall unknowingly acted as our witness, and so from now on we no longer stand before you as just brother and sister, or just lovers, but husband and wife."

Everybody gaped for several seconds before the first round of clapping went around, and the newly-wedded couple smiled broadly before standing up, bowing, and then walking back towards the castle. Harry could see Lily and James – the former dressed in his deep crimson Auror robes, hurrying towards them with murderous intentions on their faces, but Harry just sent the two a smirk before running through a small series of seals with his hands. Everybody in the stands, including those moving to clear the wards to apparate away, stared with complete shock as Harry and May disappeared in a burst of black flames, and Harry grinned for all he was worth when they appeared just outside the deserted Great Hall.

"Shunshin?" the young red-head gasped, and Harry grinned before winking.

"Yeah. Since Chakra seems to have died out I've been trying to convert magic into a form usable by the jutsus that Itachi and the rest of his kind did. Admittedly it's a work in progress, because that one technique took a hell of a lot out of me, but it should get better with time." May beamed proudly up at her brother, and he smiled warmly down at her as she helped him up to the dorm. The halls were still completely deserted as most people hadn't even gotten free of the stands down by the Black Lake yet, and so May didn't worry about being seen and stripped down to her undergarments. He didn't have time to think before he found himself in just his boxers, and his sister snuggling into his side, and he immediately felt himself stiffen at the feel of all that soft skin against his own.

"May," he managed to force out, "what-"

"Shhh," she smiled as she pressed a finger over his lips, "we're married now." Harry felt his body aching and looked pleadingly at her, and she smiled before nodding. "I know you're too tired tonight love, but I can finally sleep with the man I love."

He smiled thankfully down at her, and pressed a kiss to her slightly-parted, upturned lips. "Thank you… and you are absolutely beautiful," he added as he gently ran his hand down her nearly-bare back before gently cupping her bum and squeezing slightly. She gave a small purr of approval as she snuggled deeper into his embrace, and despite the fact it was the first time they had ever slept together both found a comfortable position in seconds. Harry looked up at the ceiling of his four-poster bed with a wide smile on his face and flicked his hand to draw the curtains around them. Because of the sudden darkness however, the spell he'd cast on the ceiling became visible, and he stiffened before glaring at what it was telling him. May felt his sudden tension, and looked up at his face before following his eyes up to the squiggles on the ceiling. "What is that?"

"A surveillance spell," he bit out, "tethered to Hogwarts herself. She's sentient, and because I'm one of the Founding Four she recognizes me above the Headmaster, as the Founders of Hogwarts built us to have the power of all four of them combined because they trusted us so much."

"So… you're like the heir of Hogwarts?"

Harry gave a grim smile, "Above the heir of Hogwarts actually… but that's not the point. Hogwarts… Merlin that senile old bastard's insane, and dogged."

"What," May asked worriedly, propping herself up on an elbow so she could look down at her lover, "what is he doing?"

Harry was silent for nearly an entire minute, and May watched as his eyes shone with thought. Finally he turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "May, how would you like to have a holiday for around four months?"


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I last updated - some other stories I'm working on had my attention. Now I received a review recently from a guest (which is always so wonderfully helpful in regards replying) asking that I take this story down, and that she (I think) was "astounded a child like you would write this im an adult trust me im older and more wise take this story down it is wrong its not offensive but it is if you catch my drift now my dear please take this off kids might get ideas". **

**I have a couple of problems with this. Firstly, this story is rated M. You have to specifically change the filter to show such stories. Two: I'm not a child - I'm twenty. Now apparently my story made this reviewer's eleven year old son think that it was okay to _love_ love his own sister, and he kissed her. Yeah, I agree that in real life that's not a good thing, but there's far worse stuff on than this. WAY WORSE. Perhaps monitor his internet usage more.  
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**For those of you that wanted a new chapter however, here it is! We have Dumbles being a tosser, Hermione being mind-numbingly authority loving, and even a lemony scene! Enjoy!**

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It happened at just past three in the morning, when most people were sleeping soundly in the deepest stage of rest. This, however, did not apply to two fifteen year old married twins, or to one other student, a certain headmaster, and several other adults. Harry braced himself when he saw the warning in parseltongue flare up on the ceiling and a moment later he felt the wards around his bed crash down. Within milliseconds the curtains had been flung back and several very dark curses flew at the pair, and Harry's Sharingan flared to life as he carefully looked the spells over before allowing them to splash over his and May's exposed bodies. To the attackers the pair slumped as they were supposed to; completely unconscious.

"Severus," came a whisper, "administer the draught."

Harry's eyes narrowed and he was secretly very glad that he and his beautiful sister had gone through the agony of the runic rituals whilst in the time chamber. Oh they were very, very illegal and would have them sentenced to whatever country they were in's highest security prison for life should they be discovered, but it gave them immunity to almost all potions should they will it. Harry ordered the runic array that was carved into the wall of his body cavity to activate and smiled as he felt the Draught of the Living Death that trickled down his throat get eliminated.

"_Mobilicorpus,_" came the hissed whisper a moment later, and Harry recognized the voice easily as Lily Potter's. "Disgusting," he heard her mutter a moment later, he assumed in reference to the fact that him and his sister were sleeping nearly naked together, and a moment later he felt an invisibility cloak slip over his body, and he assumed his sister's as she'd been pulled from his arms by James' levitating spell.

"Miss Granger, would you please get the door?"

Harry's jaw clenched imperceptibly at the knowledge that the jealous little girl was helping but he hid it well – not that there was really any need now that his hovering body was invisible. He could feel himself moving, and knew that they were in the corridors of Hogwarts when the footsteps around him bounced off the walls and echoed. "Must May go as well Albus? She's the Girl-Who-Lived; I thought we needed her to defeat Voldemort!"

That was James again, Harry noted idly, and the tired voice of Dumbledore replied a moment later with a deep sigh. "She must be broken of her disobedience I'm afraid, James. In fact she must be broken full-stop, especially with her marriage to Harry." The young wizard rolled his eyes to himself, and had to force himself to not correct the git and get him to address him properly. "It is clear that both Harry and May broke free of the compulsions and memory alterations we placed on them, and if they can get past that then a more… permanent approach needs to be put in place, which is what we're doing."

"But Azkaban, Albus?" Harry heard James ask uneasily, and another sigh echoed in the empty stone halls.

"Yes, James, Azkaban. May will be put in a lower security wing to lessen the exposure to dementors, as I'm sure that it was Harry that broke the memory charms and such, but she still needs to be broken so that we can control her better. If she loses all hope then she will be malleable."

"Headmaster, isn't this illegal?"

Harry almost groaned, and he could sense his sister's identical reaction; the mousy-haired bint was supposed to be vaguely intelligent. "Sometimes, Miss Granger, things like this must be done for the Greater Good. If Miss Potter doesn't do what she's told then Voldemort will take over Britain."

'_Ah,'_ Harry thought, _'and there's the fabled Greater Good. Nice line you old goat shagger, but will Hermione fall for it?_'

"Of course Headmaster, sometimes sacrifices must be made."

'_Hook, line, and sinker,_' he thought dryly, not overly surprised at the blind acceptance of authority, '_because sentencing innocents to hell on Earth is just what an ethically competent person would do. Merlin, their moral compasses are so fucked up I'm surprised they can even find their way to the wardline!'_

"I really wish we didn't have to do this to May, Albus. Harry deserves to be stuck in the high-security wing, but May? She's always been our little girl."

'_Aw, Lily's pleading. How nice.'_

"May has been corrupted by Harry, Lily, I'm so very sorry. If there was another feasible course of action then I would take it, but May has been tarnished by Harry's darkness. Azkaban is the only way to break her without the outside world knowing about it."

"And what about Harry?"

"He will stay locked away in the High Security wing until he dies," Albus revealed in his tired voice designed specifically to make it seem like he didn't like what he was doing, "it is for the best. He is too dark to allow free, and we will tell May that Harry is dead once she is nearly broken – that should make her completely obedient." Harry clenched his jaw as he listened to the senile old fool talk about his wonderful sister like a piece of meat; a mere weapon, and had to force himself not to move or show any flicker of awareness. "Miss Granger, you should return to your common room – Azkaban is not a place I would wish you to experience. Severus, if you would lead our newest member back to Gryffindor it would be much appreciated. Oh, and Miss Granger, come and see me tomorrow about those books you wanted to look at."

Harry could hear the excitement in the, "Yes Headmaster!" that was returned, and rolled his eyes for the second time since awakening. There was silence for a moment, and he felt them clear the wards whereupon Dumbledore ordered James and Lilly to grab hold. A twisting, sickening sensation later and Harry could hear the waves crashing on rocks far below, and he had no doubts about just where they were. He could feel the cold, rank magic surrounding them and quietly reinforced his Occlumency barriers until he could no longer detect the darkness.

"Moony, Sirius," greeted James, and Harry raised an eyebrow at the pair's presence.

"James, Lilly, Dumbledore," came the low voice of Remus Lupin, "the watchman's been relieved by Shacklebolt, and Tonks, Moody, and Vance have taken up guard duties on the minimum and maximum wings."

"Excellent work, both of you. Shall we continue?" He felt the invisibility cloak get pulled off of him as they moved into Azkaban, and he could feel the ancient, immensely powerful wards rush over him. He stifled a humoured smirk when the huge fortress searched him for a mind, and upon finding none, as it was hidden behind his impenetrable magical wall, granted him Dementor privileges. It wasn't part of the plan, but it sure as hell made things far, far easier. "This is where May will be staying," Dumbledore finally announced when they came to a stop, and Harry took note of the measly soul-sucking pressure around him.

"It's… it's a cell," Lily managed to choke out, and Sirius snapped at her almost immediately.

"What else did you expect Lily, a freaking chateau? We're in Azkaban!"

He could almost sense Dumbledore placing his hand on the conflicted woman's shoulder when he next spoke. "Lily, this must be done. In one year you'll have her back."

Harry heard a suspicious sniff, and then a quiet, almost inaudible, "Okay," from the crying woman. He was disgusted. Not only had they destroyed his life by throwing him in Knockturn, but now they were planning on ruining May's simply because of an old man's suggestions – again. He heard the shuffling as his sister was placed into her cell, as well as some quiet farewells from her 'loving' parents. He heard the metal gate clang shut with a daunting finality that didn't bother him at all, and James and Lily quickly bade Dumbledore goodbye before leaving Harry to his fate. They began moving again, and Harry picked up three sets of footsteps which meant that Sirius and Remus were still there. As the magic around them darkened as they ventured deeper into the bowels of Azkaban there were some muttered greetings to whom Harry assumed were Tonks and Shacklebolt.

Finally, after what seemed like an age, they stopped once more as a wooden clinking approached. A gruff voice soon echoed around them. "Albus, Black, Lupin. This boy's well trained by the looks of it." Harry suppressed a shiver at being gawked at by a seventy-something year old man while he was just in silk boxers, hell, the imposter creeped him out enough normally. "Hope you know what you're doing Albus, the wizarding world'll be in an uproar if they ever catch wind of this. Harry Uchiha here, as well as May Uchiha, have complete immunity from the law."

"Which is why, old friend, we are erecting powerful wards over both of their cells so that the aurors who guard the floors won't notice them."

A grunt was the reply, and then the wooden clonking started up again as they moved. Harry wondered just what the imposter had planned, if anything at all. Finally, where the dark presence was the worst, they stopped. "Z-wing, Maximum Security," announced Moody with a slight waver in his voice as the Dementor presence got to him.

"Ah, very good Alastor! Help me put him inside, would you?" Harry felt himself be maneuvered through a thin entrance before being dropped rather unceremoniously onto the cold, hard, stone floor, and stifled a wince at the slight pain that jolted into him.

Harry felt something being forced into his mouth and swallowed it with a roll of his eyes when he recognized it as the antidote for the Draught of the Living Death. "Mind if Remus and I have a… little word with the bastard that corrupted little May, Albus?"

A chuckle was the answer, and a moment later Harry heard Dumbledore and Moody move away talking lowly to each other. Two footsteps advanced into his cell and he prepared himself to the pain of being beaten. What he was in no way expecting was the feel of a cloak to fall over him, and a hand come to rest on his shoulder. "Merlin Harry," Sirius murmured as he looked down at his ex-godson in despair, "I… both of us, we're so sorry we can't do anything. I can't believe that Albus is actually doing this… and James and Lily!"

"They used to be good people, Harry," the youth himself heard Remus murmur, "but… they disgust me now. I can't see how they could do what they did to you, or do what they're doing to May. We tried to stop them from doing this Harry, we truly did. Both of us saw you two together at the Second Task, and my feelings about incest aside Harry, you two are perfect together; the picture perfect couple."

"What Remus is trying to say, Harry," Sirius interrupted with a sad whisper as he squeezed Harry's shoulder a little tighter, "is that we're so, so sorry. If we tried anything Albus'd put us in here too and then we wouldn't be able to do anything. Albus has us on rotating shifts, so we're scheduled to monitor you every Thursday and Sunday evening…" Harry heard a sigh, "Why we even doing this? The Draught antidote'll take an hour to bring him out of it anyways, and that's not even considering the other curses he'd been hit with. Hell, I can feel the dark magic on him!"

"No, really, please continue, this is all very informative," Harry mumbled quietly, and he heard a gasp and a curse before two thumps. "Aurors tripping over themselves?" Harry question wryly as he opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow, and he saw the pair staring at him with wide eyes.

"H-Harry?"

"Well yeah… I'm pretty damn sure I'm me."

Sirius whipped his head out of the cell door to make sure that Dumbledore and Moody were still occupied before ducking back in and hissing with wide eyes, "How the _fuck_ are you awake?!"

"Illegal stuff," Harry whispered back with a roll of his eyes, "but that's neither here nor there. Just tell me, can I trust you? I remember that you two were nice to me before the _Potters_ went and abandoned me."

Both nodded their heads furiously, and Remus answered for the two of them. "You can trust us Harry – Merlin I can't believe you're awake!"

"Well I am," Harry grinned back as he pulled the Auror's robes that Sirius had placed over him tighter to his near-naked body. "Quickly, schedules now. Tell me who's where when."

Sirius quickly pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket before handing it to Harry, and with a flicker of his Sharingan he nodded and handed it back. "I'll be fine, and so will May. I love my wife with everything that I am, and I'll ask you to trust me." They both nodded, still stunned that their unofficial nephew was actually aware and seemingly fine with the current situation. "Now scram before Moody and the Old Goat get suspicious. I'll see you in two days when you've got the rounds – thank Merlin the stupid codger put you two together or else it'd be a bit harder than I had planned."

The pair both hurriedly stood and Harry threw Sirius' robes to him with a sly grin. "Wouldn't want to be seen to show affection now, would you?"

Both men stared at him for a moment before grinning dual smiles, and Sirius whispered to him cheekily, "Right you are Harry… we really need to induct you into the Marauders… and kick James out."

"Bring two doses of the potion next time you're here and we can see about me becoming a animagi, eh?"

Both men looked almost giddy as their fears were washed away by the confident, clearly-scheming teen in front of them. After several seconds they managed to marshal their faces into looks of hate before stepping out of the cell and slamming the gate shut. Remus scowled at the grinning teen who was out of view of Dumbledore and Alastor and said quite loudly, "Rot in Hell for what you did to May Potter."

Sirius hissed his agreement, but Harry could see the mischief in both their eyes as he lay down with a shake of his head and a grin to pretend to be asleep once more. Albus quickly returned and erected the not-notice-me wards for non-Order aurors and then strode quickly away; clearly glad to finally be rid of Harry.

The young man waited for several minutes before standing up and stretching and looked around at the dismal cell with something akin to minor interest. He peered up at the ceiling and cocked his head to the side. "Anti-magic runes, strengthening runes, anti-Occlumency runes… quite the collection Albus, well done." His Occlumency barriers, however, were left completely unaffected by the runes, as was his magic. Azkaban, of course, thought him a Dementor, though that wouldn't last for much longer. He walked over to the nearest wall and thought for a moment before pressing some of his magic into the stone. Immediately Azkaban reacted to the perceived mistake, and the runes above his head started lighting up to deliver punishment, but everything stopped mid-readiness.

The stone under his hand pulsed purple after a moment before starting to glow steadily, and Harry shook his head with a smile. "But not good enough Albus."

In 481 C.E Julius Azka, a ninja from the Western Continent, had built the fortress as a safehold for the Hidden Village of Steel; the most advanced group of people at the time of its creation. Eventually he realized that the mammoth fortress was suited towards a different purpose, which was to house prisoners. It was isolated by violent seas, surrounded by an almost impenetrable mist to keep it hidden, and the jutsus used to create the huge building had some very interesting side-effects that caused insanity to anybody within its walls. Of course by the time he realized the implications he himself had gone crazy and had succumbed to his own achievement. The island had lain abandoned for hundreds of years, until in 654 C.E Merlin had discovered the island. Of course Merlin, along with the founding Four; Itachi Uchiha, Morgana La Fey, and Mustrum Ridcully shared everything with one another, and so all of them worked on the place to make it habitable again – though still as a prison. They made it so that the mental torture would only occur within the cells and not the halls where the guards would patrol.

They kept the name.

"I, Harry Itachi Uchiha, hereby take control of all Azkaban wards and Dementors."

He felt a veritable flood of connections snap onto his magic, and awareness of everything about the prison zip into his mind. He could sense the locations of _everything_; Dementors, specific prisoners, items, guards, _everything_. He could tell that Dumbledore had just made it down to May once more to erect the not-notice-me wards, and lazily altered the permissions of the huge 'undefeatable' fortress so that both he and his sister would not be harmed within its walls, and have complete access. He sensed Dumbledore finally walking away with Moody, and soon after that the rest of the Order guards who were replaced with the next shift. With a bored yawn Harry stepped out of his cell, the door swinging open for him, and the magic around him quickly created clothes on his near-naked body.

He walked past one of the new aurors without a glance, and the woman didn't even see him thanks to Azkaban shielding his presence. If they looked into his cell they'd just see what Dumbledore's ward wanted them to see. He trotted down the stairwell, his leather shoes clapping quietly against the hard stone, and smiled when he saw May walking upwards towards him, dressed in smart, all-black clothing much the same as he was. Her suit was clearly tailored for a woman, but that was the only difference, and she beamed up at him before walking by his side as they made their way back up to his cell. "You were completely right," she grinned at him, "everything." Her smile faded into a scowl, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. "I can't believe those bastards though, how can they even be classified as human beings? They're disgusting!"

She was, of course, referring to the quick abandonment to torture that her parents had agreed to, and Harry wasn't about to dissuade her from her thinking. "Yes, they are the worst kind of creatures, however I happen to have met two people that are on our side." She looked up at him, surprised, and he winked. "Sirius and Remus."

Her jaw slackened slightly, but her eyes lit up a moment later when she got over the shock. A broad grin spread over her face and she looked relieved. "Thank Merlin! They were always my favourite adults… I was worried when I heard that they were on Dumbledore's side… how do you know?"

He filled her in on what had happened, and she smiled as she intertwined their fingers. When she spoke she was clearly ecstatic. "I'm glad we have more people to trust. They were my best friends before I met you; the only two people that I trusted."

Harry smiled and nodded, thinking back to the stories she'd told him about her own childhood when they were in the time chamber. "I'm glad too."

They finally reached Harry's cell, the auror still looking tensely around, more from the Dementor presence than suspicion, and she smiled as he held the magically-reinforced metal gate open for her. "Such a gentleman," she quipped with a smirk as she stepped inside, and he rolled his eyes with a smile.

"I do try and woo my ladies with expectations of mouldy cells," he shot back before locking the gate and looking around. He walked over to the purple stone once more and commanded the magic imbued into the very walls around them, and he smiled as the room started expanding until it was about the size of the Ravenclaw Common Room. Polished wood suddenly sprouted beneath their feet, and May watched with a wide smile and awe as their new room slowly took form. The ceiling curved until it looked almost like a half-cylinder, and then turned suddenly transparent to show the sky above the prison. Furniture popped up our of seemingly nowhere; a beautiful king-size bed, polished and stained wood once more, at the back of the cell; two adjoining work desks with leather chairs just forward from the bed; a loveseat and two recliners surrounding an open fireplace beside the gate, and right at the very back, past the bed, a beautiful obsidian door with wrought gold designs curling over its surface. Finally Harry withdrew his hand and smiled across at his sister.

"You like?"

She beamed at him and laughed happily before walking over and hugging him, and he wrapped his arms around her back as they both looked at the room in full. "What's through the door?"

She looked up and saw her brother's eyes glimmering with delight, and took his offered hand as he led her to it. He motioned encouragingly to her, and she took a breath filled with anticipation before pushing. When it swung open she looked at the room, if it could even be called that, beyond with awe and a slack jaw as the perfect heat smacked her in the face. Beyond the door was a wooden-bridged path that curved through a few meters of jungle before opening out into a beautiful oasis. Sun beamed downwards from above, in harsh contrast to the night-time sky of their room, as it was just past four in the morning, and warmed the air to a perfect temperature. The open space was surrounded by lush bush and sounds of nature, and birds and other wildlife, created a relaxing symphony around them.

The ground of the open space was filled almost completely by a steaming pool of water, and around the edges of the clearing the wood path continued; a couple of deck chairs to relax on laid out, as well as towels and toiletries within easy reach of the water. And the water looked a pure green; the kind of green one only sees in books, and May stared at it speechlessly for several moments before pointing at the surfaces underneath the water. "Emerald," Harry informed her with a humoured smile, "pure emerald."

"Harry," she breathed as she looked around, "this place is beautiful."

Harry had to admit that he was awed himself, and nodded as he pulled her into his side before smiling down at her. "Would you care for a bath?"

She smiled up at him before nodding after a moment and he smiled warmly down at her before pointing to one of the chairs where a swimsuit was waiting for her. She walked over to it, just as he walked over to his, and then turned around before holding up the sea-green bikini with a raised eyebrow. "You want me to wear this?"

He smiled as he held his board-shorts in his hand and smiled cheekily at her. "Am I not allowed to appreciate my wife's beautiful body?"

Her expression softened when he mentioned the 'w' word, and she sent him a shy smile before nodding and twirling her finger, telling him to turn around. Both got undressed and into their bathing suits with their backs to one another. "Are you done?" Harry heard his sister ask nervously, and he nodded with a nervous smile of his own.

"Yeah…" He turned around at the same time she did, and blushed when he saw his sister's lithe body bared almost completely to him; only two small pieces of fabric protecting her modesty. May likewise blushed at the muscled torso that faced her, and both met each others' gaze at the same time before giving dual smiles of acceptance and anticipation. Harry stepped into the crystal-clear water, sighing as his aching muscles from the day before were surrounded by the heat, and then held his hand out to his beautiful sister with a reassuring smile.

She beamed down at him before accepting his help into the pool, and she too sighed when the warmth enveloped her. Contrary to the nervousness both felt, as it was the second time they had been so bare around each other, and the first time in daylight, May sunk into Harry's lap and sighed with a small smile as she leaned back into his firm chest. She felt his hands clasp over her toned stomach and rested her own fingers on top of his own. "I love you."

He smiled down at the one and only woman he had ever loved and pressed a kiss to her scalp – his eyes closed just as hers were. "I love you too May." They sat like that for what felt like hours, until Harry reached behind him and grabbed the shampoo. May groaned as he massaged her head and leaned even further back into him as he continued his ministrations. Once he had carefully washed the suds from her head she opened her eyes and twisted around to smile at him, and took the bottle from the poolside before returning the favour. Each touch was like a new connection had been made between them, and with one hand still kneading his hair she reached behind her and untied her bikini top. She broke contact for a moment to lift it from her torso and throw it over her shoulder, and then gently washed the soap from him.

Just as she had, he opened his eyes, and she watched his face turn a brilliant shade of red when he realized his lover, his younger sister, was straddling his lap topless. She watched his eyes nervously for any signs of disappointment, but found only awe as his eyes drank in the pert mounds in front of him. She groaned and leaned into him when he reached up and cupped her breasts, and pressed against his hands when he slowly begun moulding them with his fingers. "You're perfect," she heard him whisper huskily by her ear, and she gasped when he shifted slightly and she felt a definite hardness press into her own groin. She was sure that had they out of the water and dry, her bikini bottoms would have quite a large damp patch on them – his arousal and assurance of want only pushing hers higher.

Taking a risk she slowly started grinding against her brother, and she gasped when he clenched tighter on her breasts and jerked beneath her to meet the movement. Both slowly moved against the other; their groins pressed hard together, and May crossed her legs behind Harry's back and her arms around his neck to get extra leverage in an almost delirious attempt to increase the pleasure she was feeling. Both were panting madly, and while Harry was grunting softly, May's mews of want drove him crazy. He could feel the pressure building inside of him; knew that he was desperately close, and pulled slightly back from her to stare down at her face. He found her looking back at him; her eyes clouded with desire and love, and they held each others' gaze as their movements got more frantic.

Harry suddenly felt the moment where he knew there was no turning back and May saw it in her eyes. A brilliant smile lit up her face as the water sloshed violently around them and their hips mashed together underwater, and she panted hard as her breasts bounced against her chest. Harry watched her eyes slowly start to widen and he couldn't hold on any longer. With a roar he jerked against her, mashing their pelvic bones together, and the sudden pressure on May's clit sent her toppling into orgasm with her brother. She screamed with ecstasy, and Harry could feel her nails tearing violently at his back as they tried to find purchase, but the pain just sent him higher. Neither knew how long they clutched at each other, their bodies arched and their cries of passion tearing free from their throats. May collapsed bonelessly against Harry, and the young man himself slouched against the emerald against his back as he panted, eyes closed, and clutched protectively at the woman in his arms.

"Oh Harry," he heard her breathe in awe, and he allowed himself a small smile.

"You were amazing, so… so amazing May."

They sat there for minutes, slowly coming down from their orgasmic highs, and holding onto each other with soft desperation. May was the first to move, and gently reached down to remove her bottoms. Harry smiled softly at her, all inhibitions gone, as he carefully stood and removed his trunks, and both stood in front of each other, naked, completely bared and vulnerable for the first time. Their eyes roamed over their lover's body, Harry's eyes sliding languidly over her hairless slit gleaming with her juices, and her stiff nipples dusted pink against her pale skin, while May's burning gaze caught on his slowly softening erection and toned torso. Once more their gazes met simultaneously, and May held her hand out to her older brother with a soft, infinitely loving smile. "Make love to me?"

Harry smiled softly at her before taking her hand and nodding, and the twins slowly got out of the pool before drying each other off and retreating to their bedroom; their hands never failing to be in contact with the skin of their sibling. As Harry gently lowered May to the silken sheets of their bed he couldn't help but stroke her cheek and smile; she was everything to him.

Over the next four hours Harry and May made love; slowly, lovingly, in complete awe of one another and what they had between them. May had cried when Harry had penetrated her for the first time, breaking through her hymen, though the tears were equal parts euphoric and pained. Although awkward at first as they discovered how to move together they found themselves gaining a new understanding of each other; their connection deepening as their physical bonds were strengthened. They came together more often than not, and at the very most within seconds of each other, and May delighted in feeling him throb and yell as he came deep inside of her; the warmth of his come bringing her orgasm to even more intense heights.

Finally, at nine o'clock in the morning, the pair cuddled into each others' bodies and May smiled tiredly up at Harry when she felt a wave of magic sweep over her and clean all the juices from them. She could still feel his seed slowly seeping out of her but she loved the feeling, and Harry kissed her one last time before laying his head down on his pillow and closing his eyes – a blissfully contented expression on his face. She was sure she held the same countenance, and kissed his collar-bone before laying her head on his chest and letting his steady, slowly-calming heartbeat lull her to sleep.

The pair awoke to a 'pssst!', and Harry jerked slightly before giving a low moan when he felt May stir; her soft, creamy skin moving sensually against him. Cracking open his eyes he looked down to the end of the room and saw a woman with garishly pink hair staring into the 'cell'. "Psst, Harry!"

He groaned again as he sat slowly up, moving out from underneath his naked lover before kissing her cheek as she mumbled softly – half-way between sleep and awareness, and threw a gown over his own nakedness before walking forwards rubbing his eyes. He knew that the woman outside, as she was in the Order if she knew that he was in the cell, was seeing a scummy cell and him lying on the stone ground, and pulled one of the chairs from the desks over so that it was right by the bars. He sat down and crossed his ankles before carefully looking at the woman in front of him. He was surprised when her hair cycled to black and a depressed look crossed her face, but she jumped when Harry cleared his throat.

"Harry?!"

She was still seeing the barely-dressed Harry Uchiha, but his voice reached her ears, and the representation of the imprisoned teen acted as if it was speaking to her; sitting wearily up and staring lifelessly at her. "Who are you?"

"I- my name is Tonks, I'm-"

"One of Dumbledore's lackeys, yes, I am aware."

Her face paled and she shook her head, "I didn't want to do it Harry, I know you shouldn't be here."

He yawned and reached out his hand to grab a steaming cup of coffee that was hovering beside him, taking a sip before resting it on his lap and watching her expression. Her Occlumency barriers were strong, and he didn't want to bring her attention by walking right through them; in her eyes he was magicless and defenceless. "Well then why am I here?"

"Most of the Order believes Dumbledore," she replied sadly, "and if those of us who disagree, which is a very small few, acted… well I think this is proof that Dumbledore can be just as horrible as Voldemort. I-I know it's cruel, but we have families and…"

"I don't," he finished easily before shrugging, "I get it. Well you're not entirely right, in fact the love of my life, my wife, is imprisoned down below as well."

Her face turned pained, and he could tell that not acting was hurting her. He watched as she brought out a ragged cloak, torn and worn, as well as a small package before sliding them through the bars. "I know it's not much, but it's all I can do without the other guards getting suspicious. The cloak should keep you warm, and the package has some food and chocolate in it for after… after the Dementors come. Sirius and Remus told me that they'd bring you food and stuff as well… just hang in there Harry."

"And May?"

"She's already got a warm cloak… but I've given her food too."

Harry gave a small smile at the saddened woman and cocked his head to the side. "Thank you. It means a lot that you're risking being caught by doing this."

Her eyes sharpened as she looked over his shoulder at what she thought to be him still lying on the floor, weakened. "I do what's right, not what's easy. Remus, Sirius, Severus, and I… we're with you."

Harry's eyebrows shot up underneath his eyebrows, and his eyes widened. "Sev—you've got to be kidding me!"

She shook her head with disbelief, "I know, Harry, trust me I know. We were as shocked as you are when he came right up to us and told us that he wanted in."

"Harry," came a silky drawl, and both Tonks' and Harry's heads snapped to look at the sound of the voice, the former paling when she saw the greasy-haired man himself standing there.

Harry narrowed his eyes after a moment, and then flickered his Sharingan with suspicion. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw Severus Snape's visage fade to leave a tall, aristocratic blonde. "Ştefan?!"

Tonks snapped her head to Harry in confusion, and then back to the still-smirking 'Severus Snape'. "Indeed young Harry."

Tonks suddenly had her wand in her hand and had it pointing at the disguised man. "I-If you're not Severus then who are you?!"

The man nodded to Harry, signalling that he considered the young auror trustworthy, and Harry sighed before pointing to the man in front of her. "That, Miss Tonks, is Ştefan Dracula, heir to the Vampire Kingdom Throne." Finally the man let the glamour drop from his body and Tonks gaped at the handsome figure in front of her. "And Ştefan, this is Tonks; I believe you are better acquainted with her than I am."

The vampire nodded before stepping forwards and taking Tonks' hand, the one with the wand still clutched in it, and kissed her knuckles before sending her a charming smile. "A pleasure to finally meet you without the charade, Nymphadora."

She blushed beet-red, and stammered incoherently for several seconds; seconds which Harry took advantage of and stared at his old friend whom he had met after defeating the last Count Dracula. "And where is Severus Snape if everybody thinks you're him?"

"He's dead," the man replied as if talking about the weather, "very, very dead. Now, young Harry, would you mind inviting us into your humble abode? I believe there is much we should discuss, and which I may be able to help with."

Tonks was looking at the man like he was crazy, but jerked her head to look at Harry when the young man gave an amused sigh and clicked his fingers; signalling Azkaban to drop the glamour. Her jaw dropped, and her wand-arm fell limply to her side when the luxurious suite came into view, and Harry pushed open the supposedly-inescapable-cell's gate before waving them in. The moment they passed the threshold all the coldness from outside in the halls dropped away to be replaced by a comforting warmth, and the smell of brewing coffee wafted into their nostrils.

Tonks watched, agape, as Harry walked over to the bed and gently shook the lump, and gurgled slightly when the lump rose slightly; clutching the sheets to their nakedness and rubbing their eyes as they smiled. Harry leaned down and kissed his lover, and she returned it with a small groan of contentedness. "Good morning."

He winked down at her and shielded her from view with his back as he slid her own robe over her shoulders. "We have visitors."

She raised an eyebrow and peeked over his shoulder, and smiled when she saw Tonks. "Ah, that's Andy and Ted's daughter – my second cousin twice r- thrice removed? Well she's my cousin in some manner." Harry gave her some room to tie the strip of fabric around her waist, and she moved out of bed with a small wince.

"Ah, your first time last night then young one?" She looked across at the Vampire prince and blushed slightly, mirroring Harry's expression, and nodded. "I do know a spell that would perhaps ease the pain if you so wish?"

She looked up at Harry, and he gave a reassuring nod to her as she'd missed his introduction of the man. "This is Prince Dracula."

Her mouth curved into an 'O' shape and she turned back to the man with an unguarded smile. "I would appreciate it." He smiled and nodded, and a wave of his hand later May sunk into Harry's side with a relieved sigh. "Much better, thank you."

Harry wrapped his arm around his sister's waist and smiled to the two guests before motioning to the chairs. Tonks flopped down into one of the recliners while the Vampire slid into the other, and Harry led May to the loveseat where he rested his feet on the table and May curled up beside him with a smile on her face – both their eyes glittering. Tonks finally managed to stammer out a strained, "B-but how?" and Harry smiled across at her as he massaged his wife's scalp.

"I have full control over Azkaban, Miss Tonks, as my ancestor helped create it. As for this entire 'mess' happening, it was all planned. We knew that Dumbles would do this hours before it happened, and prepared accordingly. My wand, and other effects, as well as May's, are currently in the possession of my house elf, who I will summon sometime today." He gave her a mischevious smile, "The two of us are treating this time as our honeymoon, and intend on returning in time for the Third Task. I do, of course, have a Tournament to win."

Ştefan cracked a grin as he shook his head, and he reclined further in his chair; his burning red eyes peering out over top of his steepled fingers. "Yes, why am I not surprised you would resort to such show tactics?"

"Because I was also the kid that decided pissing of Vlad the Impaler would be a good idea," Harry shot back, and the vampire gave a chuckle.

"Yes, that could very well have something to do with it."

Tonks was whipping her head confusedly between all of the people surrounding her; completely lost as to what precisely was going on. May saw her confusion and took pity, describing everything in rather plain terms to the floundering woman. "During our time here Harry and I intend to have our honeymoon, and draw up plans for what we want to do when we get out. Harry essentially owns Azkaban right now, and Ştefan is likely here to act as a liaison between us and the Vampire clans." The blonde man nodded his agreement with May's words, and she smiled before leaning forwards slightly. "Tonks, you have just entered a very small group of people that have the power to topple the wizarding world – so be prepared to see things you thought impossible."

The young metamorph stared across at the married twins and nodded her head slowly. "I gathered that from what I saw in the First and Second Tasks."

Harry smiled wryly and shrugged, "What can I say; I'm a sucker for grand impressions."

There was a small silence for a moment, but then Ştefan sat forwards and grinned. "Well let's get to it then."


	13. Rewrite Notification

Ladies and Gentlemen... a moment of your precious time please.

I love you people, in an entirely platonic way mind, but hey - 365 reviews isn't something to laugh at, and I seriously appreciate it. Now I brought to my own attention my rather... lackluster performance in character development, as well as glaring plot-holes, and a rather... depressing realization that no matter how much I love true love, and love conquering all, and hooking up within the first few chapters, and Harry being badass and dark and awesome but being all cuddly and warm and loving with said true love... it's more than a tad cliche and it really depressed me how I handled ideas that had the possibility to be awesome, but were just far to progressive in too little time.

So here's the deal my readers: this story... is getting flushed and deleted- I'm kidding, don't crucify me. It's getting redone. It'll have more twists, more turns, more... well it'll be more, for want of a better word. Harry'll get the Sharingan, he'll get with his sister, he'll take his revenge... but he will _develop_. Harry will not start off god-like as he did in this story. He will not be happy at the beginning as he is in this story. His abuse will be... well I won't ruin it, but one does not get thrown to harvesters by their family and then come out having a bright outlook on life.

Also the deal is that Uni is no longer a problem because doing computers all day every day for the rest of my life was not conducive to my sanity. Consequently full-time work has filled that void, as has training to get into the army - and basic training begins next February. Now I haven't started on the rewrite. I have a considerable plan ready to go, and I hope to push out a few chapters before that date, but suffice to say that past that date access to tech, or free time, will be very limited for sixteen weeks.

My other story I do not have plans to revamp at the current time, because this story here will be taking priority. Sole priority, because my problem is that I literally have forty unfinished, multi-chapter fics in my dropbox that keep on pulling my attention their way. That will not be happening any more. So within a week or two the first chapter should be out. If you like this fic but haven't favourites me as an author, I'd suggest doing so or at the very least keep checking my profile every couple of days to check it it's out.

A word for the wise however, the rewrite will be considerably darker than Eye of the Beholder (which will stay published for those who may wish to adopt it or read a lighter version), however I hope that the increased and more wordly style of writing I will be employing will make up for the original's abandonment.

'Till then!

Vince


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